Hester the Jester by Ben Shecter, 1977.

This cute picture book takes place in a Medieval kingdom.  Little Hester’s father is the court jester.  Then, Hester decides that she wants to be a jester, too.  At first, Hester’s parents tell her that she can’t because she’s a girl.  (If you’re thinking that you know where this story is headed, wait.)

One day, the king is so sad that Hester’s father can’t cheer him up, no matter what he does.  When Hester starts putting on her jester act for her father and makes him happy, he decides to go ahead and have her perform for the king.  Hester does cheer the king up, but that isn’t the end of the story.

Hester tells the king that she has discovered that she doesn’t like being a jester after all because it makes her feel too silly.  So, the king, now in a much better mood, asks her what she would like to do instead.

This starts a sequence where the king allows Hester to try out various roles and see if she likes them.  She tells him that she wants to be a knight because knights are important, but she ends up not liking that when she learns that knights have to go into battle.  Then, Hester decides that being a king is even more important, so the king decides to let her try it.  But, Hester isn’t good at giving other people wise advice, as the king does.

In the end, when Hester’s mother is sad and doesn’t know what to do now that her daughter has become a king, Hester decides that what she most wants to do is to go home and be her little girl again.

In a way, this book seems like two little stories in one.  First, there’s Hester proving that she can be a jester even though she’s a girl, and then, there’s Hester trying to decide what she really wants to be the most, now that the king is letting her try anything she wants.  What she decides that she wants most is to be herself and go home.

So, is this little book anti-feminist, saying that girls are better off just forgetting about the other stuff they might want and staying girls?  I don’t think so.  Basically, this is just a silly little story about a little girl, one too young to have a profession of any kind, who is allowed to see the realities behind some of the things she’s been wanting to try.  Some parts, she likes, and some she doesn’t.  But, she’s too young and inexperienced for all of them (and some, she will never want to try again because she’s learned that they’re not what she really wants after all), so she’s just going to be what she is: a little girl with plenty of time to grow up, who needs her mother and whose mother needs her.  All throughout the book, Hester speaks her mind about what she wants and is honest about the things she doesn’t like, admitting when she changes her mind.  As for what might happen when Hester grows up and finds something else she might want to do . . . who knows?  By then, she may be willing to try new things again.  But, she knows what she wants for now and has a little better idea of some things that she won’t want in the future.
The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.