THE PRINCESSES HAVE A BALL

Maybe princesses used to dream of marrying princes and dancing at formal balls, but here are twelve contemporary ones with something else in mind. Their puzzled royal father can’t figure out how they go through elegant shoes so rapidly, but a young cobbler cottons on: “It’s strange, / but it’s clear to me / that these shoes were worn out / athletically.” A bit of nocturnal spying tells the tale—the princesses have taken to spending every night shooting hoops on an underground court. The cobbler proceeds to invent high-tops, and in no time the royal court’s being treated to a “ball” of a different sort. Cravath (I Hate Weddings, not reviewed, etc.) depicts smiling princesses of varied hair and skin color in bright, cleanly drawn watercolors; King dad looks like a typical suburban father, wearing a knit shirt under his fur-trimmed cape and ensconced in a Barcalounger with his TV remote. Wisely, the cobbler makes dad his own high-tops since he’ll need them as the referee. Bateman’s (Hunting the Daddyosaurus, p. 176, etc.) ear for rhythm fails her at times, but her rhymed update of this classic tale trips cheerfully along nonetheless. (Picture book/folktale. 6-9)