The Practical Princess and Other Liberating Fairy Tales By Jay Williams, 1978.
The modern fairy tales in this book (these are not traditional stories or folktales, although they are written in the style of old fairy tales) feature brave and clever girls. These are not just damsels in distress who need to be rescued, but girls who play heroic parts in their own stories. However, I don’t want you to think that the stories get too preachy about girl power. Some of the men in the stories may seem less than heroic at, but each of them is clever in their own way, and they are sometimes the main characters in the stories as well. The stories don’t lecture you about how “girls are just as good as guys and maybe even better“ or try to make the girls look smarter by making everyone else look dumb or things like that (in spite of the name, “Stupid Marco”, Marco really isn’t all that bad). They’re just fun stories in a fairy tale style with interesting heroines. The best part is that the stories also have a sense of humor.
There is only one full-color illustration in the book. The other pictures are done as silhouettes.
The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.
The stories in the book:
The Practical Princess
When Princess Bedelia is born, she goes through the typical fairy tale ritual of having fairies give her gifts. One of them gives her common sense. When she grows up, she uses it to devise a clever plan to free her kingdom from a fearsome dragon. Unfortunately, she attracts the attention of the evil Lord Garp, who tries to force Bedelia to marry him. When Lord Garp tries to cheat at the tasks she sets for him to prove his worthiness and she catches him doing it, he imprisons her in a tower, and she must use her wits and the help of his other captive to escape.
Stupid Marco
People think that Prince Marco isn’t terribly bright because, instead of applying himself seriously to his studies as his brothers do, he has a habit of spending his time daydreaming and writing poetry, and he can never remember how to tell left from right. However, he has three major accomplishments: he is an extremely likeable person, he can whistle very loudly, and he can cure even the worst case of hiccups. In his kingdom, it’s a tradition for princes to win their future brides by going out and rescuing a princess from something (how do all these princesses get into that much trouble anyway?). To make this task easier for Marco, his father tells him about a princess he can rescue and gives him a set of simple instructions to follow. Of course, Marco loses his way and the instructions. He meets a nice young woman named Sylvia who offers to help him, but still, nothing goes as planned. However, there’s more than one princess in the world and more than one type of rescuing, so things turn out well in the end.
The Silver Whistle
When Prudence comes of age, she sets out in the world to seek her fortune. Before she leaves home, her mother, the Wise Woman of the West, gives her a magical silver whistle. If she blows it once, birds will come to her. If she blows it twice, insects will come. If she blows it three times, animals will talk to her. However, she cannot blow it four times because it will break. Prudence finds employment with an old witch who has a plan to make herself beautiful so that the prince of her kingdom will want to marry her. Although Prudence has doubts about her plan, she uses her magical whistle to help her, but only to a point. Besides, people have different ideas about what beauty is.
Forgetful Fred
Fred works as kind of an odd job man for a very wealthy man named Bumberdumble Pott. However, he tends to be somewhat absent-minded because his real love in life is music, and he’s often thinking about that when he should be focusing on what he’s doing. Bumberdumble Pott continues to employ him because he’s pleasant, kind, and likable. In spite of his wealth, there is something that Bumberdumble Pott wants that he can’t buy: the Bitter Fruit of Satisfaction. It’s a rare fruit found a long way away, across mountains and deserts and is guarded by a dragon-like create, the Fire Drake. Bumberdumble Pott knows that he’s too old to undertake the quest for the fruit, so he asks among his servants if someone else will go on his behalf. The only person willing to try is Fred, and Bumberdumble Pott promises him half his gold if he succeeds. It’s a long journey, and Fred has a map to keep him focused on his task. In the end, it’s no fault of his when he isn’t able to bring the fruit to his employer for his reward, but Fred attains his own kind of satisfaction when he is able to live the kind of life he likes with the nice girl who tried to help him and is able to play his music as often as he wants.
Petronella
For generations, the royal family of Skyclear Mountain has always had three princes, who are always given the names Michael, George, and Peter. When the princes come of age, they all go on a quest. The two eldest princes go out and seek their fortunes elsewhere, never returning to their kingdom, but the youngest always comes back with a bride to continue the royal line. When the current king and queen have a daughter instead of a son for their third child, they’re not sure what to do. They name her Petronella instead of Peter, but what’s the point of sending her out to seek a bride when she’s older? As a princess, she should wait for a prince to seek her as a bride. However, when the time comes, Petronella insists that she wants to continue the tradition by going out to seek her fortune and find a prince for herself. Even though it seems oddly backwards from how things are supposed to go, her family agrees. When she and her brothers come to a road that divides three ways, they ask the old man sitting nearby where the roads go. He answers their questions, but Petronella asks him the correct one to release him from the spell that had kept him there. In return, he tells her that if she’s looking for a prince, she should try the house of Albion the enchanter, and he gives her advice about completing tasks that he will set for her and the rewards she should ask for, which will allow her to escape from the enchanter when she decides to flee with the prince. Petronella follows his advice, but the situation isn’t quite what Petronella thinks it is. Like Petronella’s own situation, circumstances at the enchanter’s house are . . . oddly backwards. In the end, she ends up saving an enchanter from a prince.
Philbert the Fearful
Most knights can’t wait to charge into battle or undertake a dangerous quest, but Sir Philbert is different. He prefers to stay home, read good books, and look after his health. However, his doctor recommends that he undertake a quest because he needs the fresh air and exercise. Whether he really wants to or not, Philbert finds himself going on a quest with three other knights to save the emperor’s daughter from the fearsome enchanter, Brasilgore. The journey is dangerous, and two of the knights are killed, but Sir Philbert does return with the emperor’s daughter. When the other surviving knight complains that Philbert used more trickery than true bravery to defeat his enemies, the emperor explains the value of prudence. Philbert uses his wits to take care of himself and the princess, and there are benefits to staying alive rather than losing your life in a foolhardy stunt.
The Dastardly Murder of Dirty Pete by Eth Clifford, 1981.
Harry Onetree and the girls find a ghost town with a hotel, an opera house, and several other buildings. Although Harry only means to look around for a little while, he forgets to set his parking brake (something else Mary Rose warns him about, which he ignores), and their car rolls backward into a ditch. Since it’s getting dark, they’re stranded in the ghost town for the night. But, they’re not alone there.
Scared Silly by Eth Clifford, 1988.
While the Onetree family is visiting the museum, a pair of shoes that once belonged to a Chinese emperor disappears. Like the two Onetree sisters, Gus considers himself the sensible brother and doesn’t take Razendale, the dreamier sibling, very seriously. He thinks Razendale ran off with the shoes as a prank. But, Erik, who seems more sensible than either of his uncles, says that they can’t just accuse him without proof. Gus provides them with an invention that could settle the whole matter, but that depends on whether or not they can trust Gus.
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