Princess Pink and the Land of Fake-Believe

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If you haven’t seen what Scholastic’s new Branches imprint is up to, they’re worth a look. We know early readers and early chapter books are incredibly important for emerging readers. Developing fluency requires time and energy. For a child who struggles, the challenge of building stamina seems exponentially greater. 

The seemingly magical ability to make sense out of all those letters and words is enough to sustain many kids. Keeping sentences short and plots simplistic are certainly important. It’s just not enough for those bright kids who would rather spend their time in other ways. As a friend put it, the language in many of those series ubiquitous to the classroom, “Is about as natural as Joan River’s face.” 

Princess Pink and the Land of Fake Believe should be a welcome addition to every first through third grade classroom. I tried the first book in the series, Moldylocks and the Three Beards, with 15 classrooms. Before I showed the book, I told the kids we’d be checking out a new series called Princess Pink and asked them to rate their interest. Besides a few of the princess fanatics, most grumbled. The certainly didn’t expect what followed.

Nobody saw this opening coming. “This is Princess Pink. Her first name is Princess. Her last name is Pink.” Princess is jumping on her bed; her room’s a mess; the walls are decked out in Darth Vader and dinosaur drawings. Just the sheer unexpectedness sucked the air out of the room and a few moments later, every face lit up. Two short, clever sentences. Instead of overly simplistic plots and sentences, Noah Jones relies on a familiar story, Goldilocks. 

While looking for a midnight snack, Princess falls through her refrigerator into the land of Fake Believe. She meets Mother Moose (again, first/last name) and Moldylocks, a girl who looks like she lives in a swamp. There’s horse with a tuna fish attached to its head (Tuna-corn) and, of course, the three beards. As Princess puts it, “This land of Fake-Believe is Crazy-Cakes.” 

Using Goldilocks as a template, Jones continually breaks his reader’s expectations to keep them thoroughly engaged. The first chair is too hard, the second to soft, the third… covered in honey and piles of hair. The first bowl of chili is too hot, the second too cold, the third is… just right. Until Reggie the spider pops out on the next page. Aside from the delightfully bizarre story, vibrant illustrations, underlining, and dialogue set in speech bubbles tactfully enable young readers to access a more complex and more stimulating story. 

When I saw classes the next week, both the boys and the girls were extremely vocal, insisting that I continue the story. While I really wanted to, I couldn’t spoil a book so well crafted to be attainable independently by reading it aloud. 

Princess Pink and the Land of Fake-Believe: Moldylocks and the Three Beards

Noah Z. Jones

Scholastic Branches

Available June 24, 2014

Review copy access from publisher