A cozy, bilingual, wool-lined fairytale

 

“La Princesa and the Pea”
Written by Susan Middleton Elya, Illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal
Recommended age: Pre-K – 3^rd

 

When I asked my town’s librarian for help in looking up this book’s location in her stacks, she was thrown off by it being placed in the English language section, when the title almost sounds like it should be in their Spanish language collection. That combination of Spanish and English in the title was a preview of this picture book’s mixed cultural references and language. This is a modern retelling of the fairytale  “The Princess and the Pea”, set in Peru, the country where the illustrator Juan Martinez-Neal grew up in and studied art.

Susan Middleton Elya’s rhyming verse is mostly written in English, with a few Spanish words peppering the lines, highlighted with a red text color. These red words and translated for any non-Spanish readers with a helpful glossary at the front of the book.

I only know a little bit of Spanish from middle and high school, with too few opportunities to practice it in my adulthood, but I enjoyed that the author uses the Spanish words to enhance the rhyming scheme. I even learned a few new pieces of vocabulary from this book. This retelling of the classic story also focuses more on the comedic aspects and on the smitten young people than other versions.

The illustrations won the 2018 Pura Belpré award, which the ALSC awards to Latinx childrens’ writers and illustrators “whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience”. Looking at the soft-edged, wooly-looking, traditional-media drawings, this award was selected well, especially when you factor in the note at the end of the book, which explains Martinez-Neal’s influences for this project.

The book is packed full of characters wearing colorful woven clothing, and the floors and backgrounds on almost every page include at least one example of alpacas, wool threads drying or being dyed, or patterned blankets hanging on lines. 

Note the dyed Alpaca wool drying in the background, and the Guinea pigs, popular pets in Peru, in the foreground

Martinez-Neal included these details because she was inspired by the textile culture of the indigenous people of Peru. She specifically modeled the clothing of two different characters on those of peoples from two distinct regions of the country. This effort of including accurate details stands in stark contrast to a long tradition of children’s books created by people entirely outside of the depicted indigenous culture blending aspects of different peoples' cultures together haphazardly.  

Overall, this fractured fairy tale lends a sweet touch to an elementary classroom’s read-alongs, or to a children’s library. I recommend it for any collection that needs more variety in their fairytales.

 

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