ReadItDaddy's Book of the Week Part 2: Charlotte's Choice - "The Princess and the Peas" by Caryl Hart and Sarah Warburton (Nosy Crow Books)

For the second part of our "Book of the Week" nomination we are extremely pleased to finally be able to take a look at a book that has received a lot of positive buzz since it first released. Now launched as part of Nosy Crow's "Stories Aloud" range (with added enhanced audio, thanks to a clever little QR code tucked inside the cover) "The Princess and the Peas" is a delicious treatment of a well-loved fairy tale.

Young Lily-Rose May is an ordinary everyday little girl who lives with her dad in a cute little cottage in the woods. She loves to draw, read, dance and do all the things little girls like to do. But she absolutely, positively does not like peas!

This seems to be pretty common amongst little girls, but when a doctor calls to find out the cause of Lily-Rose's aversion to those poddy little green legumes, he can only come to one conclusion. Lily-Rose May is a princess - because princesses are allergic to peas!

He shows Lily-Rose and her dad the well known tale of what happened when a princess, sheltering from a storm, stayed at the royal palace one night. The queen, seeking out a true princess to marry off to her son the prince (why he couldn't just go on Zoosk like everyone else is beyond me), hid a single solitary pea under a huge pile of mattresses. The poor princess could not sleep a wink all night, broke out in pea-green hives, and had a thoroughly miserable time of it. BANG! One Princess, ready to marry off to the lazy internet-dating-site-dodging prince.

The doctor, rather than prescribing some antihistamines or pea-allergy suppressants, dictates that Lily Rose must give up living with her dad, and must move to the royal palace at once!

With a tear in her eye, Lily-Rose dutifully obeys and joins the palace household as a princess. A young girl's dream, hooray! Or is it...

This is a fantastically funny and very appealing reworking of "The Princess and the Pea" which Charlotte has demanded daily since it arrived. It could be a lot to do with Lily Rose May's name, it could be a lot to do with that absolutely stunning pink cover, but it's mostly to do with it being a brilliant book beautifully written and divinely illustrated. The audio enhancement is the icing on the cake (and we've already crowed (ha ha) about what a great idea Nosy Crow have come up with there). "The Princess and the Peas" definitely deserves a place in your pea-dodging princess' book collection!

Charlotte's best bit: The beautiful beautiful dresses and shoes that Lily-Rose May gets to wear at the palace (girls, honestly!)

Daddy's favourite bit: Daddy's brilliant pea recipe ideas. You know, pea cookies aren't actually that bad!

(kindly sent to us by Nosy Crow to thank us for Charlotte's brilliant Princess drawing used on their blog)