Picture Book Review: The Mud Princess

by Sam Juliano

Michigan educator and picture book author Jordan J. Scavone launched his writing career a few years back with the superhero concept book Might-E, a spirited collaboration with Caitlyn Knepka chronicling young Emma who dreamed of herself as a cape wearing superhero, the very antithesis of who she actually was, an easily frightened toddler reduced to sucking on a pacifier in a toy room.  The central theme of confidence building is again a central thrust in The Mud Princess, a fairy tale about Georgia, a free spirit who is as adverse to conformity as she is undaunted by the inevitable scorn and derision that will greet one who plays by their own rules.

Scavone’s enchanting fable is a hybrid of Peter Brown’s Mr. Tiger Goes Wild and the Caldecott Honor winning The Talking Eggs by Robert San Souci and Jerry Pinkney, works that stress self reliance and just rewards.  Scavone’s illustrative partner this time around is a hair stylist and freelance artist named Monica Guignard, who brings a sturdy measure of saturated watercolor resplendence to a story dominated by fantastical places and mythological fixtures.

Emma dreams of becoming as distinctive and venerated as the unseen adored Princess living in a nearby castle, but she steadfastly resists compromise to achieve it.  The author sets up the daunting mise en scene depicting this  sludge urchin as a study in contrast with the area’s other princesses-in-residence, whom he descriptively frames vividly: Their beautiful ball gowns of mauve, gold, silver and scarlet dotting the field.  Naturally, those who can’t see beyond their pampered existence will regard impoverishment as a curse and will lash out against this seeming threat to their great fortune.

Predictably, but satisfyingly Emma is transformed into a hero after she rescues her tormentors by setting a stick into the jaws of a dragon readying to swallow the regal progeny, and the story dynamic brings on yet another lesson on the “never judge a book by its cover” theme.  The Mud Princess is an appealing follow-up to Might-E, and one sure to captivate youngsters, particular girls who might find their own sympathies alternating, but firmly at the end in Emma’s corner.  The Mud Princess is fun to read and lovingly mounted.