The Princess in Black and the Perfect Princess Party

These are the most engaging children’s books I have ever encountered. Each volume is a perfect length, long enough to have the child become invested in the story but not too long as to lose their attention. Each takes me about 15- 20 minutes to read to my daughter (allowing time for illustration investigation and funny voices, of course). The humor is clever and cute and makes bedtime less dreadful for all involved. The characters are mostly female and they are all strong, independent and interesting. My daughter is 5 now and I would say kids 4-8 would get the most of these books.

I bought this (and others in the series) for my five and six-year-old granddaughters, and they loved it and so did I. I thought we’d read a few chapters at a time. We read the entire book in one sitting. I love the idea of a princess with a purpose! FYI: My six-year-old, first grade granddaughter is a strong reader and can read this on her own.

I bought this as a gift for an 8 year-old girl (2nd grader) for Christmas. She loved it so much that she read it at least three times within the first week. Considering that this book was competing with other Christmas gifts, I view it as a huge it. She and her little sister have been playing hero-princess a lot, too. I've already ordered more Princess in Black books.This book contains 15 chapters, each about 4-5 pages long. A serious child reader will ignore the chapters and plow on through. I love the chapter breaks because they allow me to tell her to stop after X chapters to get ready for bed, pick up toys, eat, etc.Overall, the book seemed right at her reading level. There are some more difficult words, particularly some of the proper names, e.g. "Frimplepants" and "Euphoria". This added to the mystery and excitement for her. This book wasn't too "easy" but had just the right amount of challenges.

I'll start by saying that this is one of my all time favorite early chapter book series and all libraries that serve young readers should have it. Not only is Princess Magnolia the perfect blend of beautiful, kind, sparkly princess but she's also rough and tough when she needs to be. After all, those monsters don't seem to speak any other language, although hysterics seems to have an impact as well. Princess Magnolia does her best to be in two places at the same time (her birthday party and the goat field) but things just get harder and harder until finally she just loses it. I think anyone whose been pushed too far can relate to Magnolia's frustration, adult or child. I've also found when reading this out loud (which is an utterly delightful experience, especially if you use varying tones) that girls and boys love this equally. And why not, it's got enough princess frills to satisfy the softest heart and enough fighting and action to satisfy the adventurous heart. Highly recommended.

My daughter read this book in 2 days. She loves this series

We love Shannon Hale, and her husband adds just that little bit of dad humor to the mix making this series a pure delight. Even better, the illustrator captures this wonderful tale perfectly. My 3 year old begged for me to read this to her every night for weeks until I finally decided I had enough. Few books make it past two nights in a row at our house, so that is really saying something. It had gotten to the point where my daughter could recite the whole thing by memory, so I now have her "read it to herself" instead. Also, my older kids (13, 11, and 9) who often heard me reading it to her didn't moan and complain like they do with most of my 3 year old's book choices. That's how good it is. There are very few children's books that I would put in this category, which includes Dr. Seuss and little else.

I got this for a struggling third grade reader. She loved it. We read the whole series.Then I brought it home and read it aloud to my five year old daughter who absolutely LOVED them. We read them all (again),Our public library happened to have a Princess in a Black event this summer - my five year old was too excited. We went and she was able to talk all about the books with the "bigger girls".The bright colorful illustrations do assist as context clues. There are also lots of opportunities for predicting/inferring.While this series may not go down in history as great literature of our time - it got two different aged girls (5 & 9) to enjoy reading. That's a success in my eyes! We can't wait for the next book to come out in September!

This is an excellent book for a child just beginning to read on her own. Excellent repetition in sentence structure to help build confidence. Many sight words, but enough higher difficulty to keep things interesting; all the flower names tying to the pictures was a brilliant touch. High-interest pictures on every page - my daughter loved tracking Princess Magnolia's increasing dishevelment through the story. Multi-layered story with several points of interest to tie back to the Perfect Pink Party storyline. And my daughter loved that it ended with an act of kindness from one of those goat-eating monsters. She read it to me (with help) at two chapters a night and it kept her interest for the whole week! She couldn't wait to reach the "twinkle twinkle little SMASH - best martial arts move ever.Highly recommended for princess-obsessed emerging readers.(Review from the mom of the family)

My Daughter enjoyed the first book so much I bought this one, and it got rave reviews like the first! Great character which my 6 year old Daughter related to, Princess Magnolia is a princess/superhero that fits both my daughters ideals! No doubt I'll be looking for the 3rd one very soon!

My daughters love this book. They are aged 7 and 5 and can read it comfortably. It's a nice chapter book which maintains their interest

I bought the whole series for my daughter who likes princesses, as I wanted a female rle model with a bit more substance. The Princess in black is perfect as not only is she a princess but also a superhero. My daughter read all three back to back and is asking for more!

My grandson loves this series. It has a lot of action and even friendly monsters all woven into a delightful stories that are not gender specific

Such a great book for any girl! Read this to my four year old and she wouldn’t let us put it down until it was done..and then we bought the rest of the series.