WAKING BEAUTY

The team that created the hysterical Falling for Rapunzel (2003) now tackles Sleeping Beauty. Rhyming couplets perfectly capture the ineptitude of the well-meaning but bumbling prince who stumbles across a castle housing what he thinks is a dragon. But no—it’s a loudly snoring girl. A trio of fairies instructs him, “We see you finally made the trip, / now give the girl a little lip.” But instead of a kiss, Prince Charming hollers at her. The fairies’ subsequent instructions are interrupted by the overeager young man, who tries jumping on her bed, dousing her with water and shooting her out of a cannon before the fairies finally get a word in edgewise. Reluctant at first, he screws up his courage and wakes her, only to receive a left hook for his trouble. The acrylic illustrations are complemented by the addition of texture-rich collage, which adds pop and verve to the traditional Sleeping Beauty scenery. Monks’s facial expressions and accurate portrayal of 100 years of dust will have readers in stitches. This irrepressible read-aloud will have the audience shouting directions at the poor hapless Prince—who could ask for a better endorsement than that? (Picture book. 3-8)