Moving Experience: Princesses On The Run by Smiljana Coh

Princess Antonia has got it all. And that's the problem. She's got elegant princessy gowns crowding her wardrobe. She's got too many books to read in one lifetime, and she's got all kinds of princess stuff cluttering her royal chamber. She's even got plenty of princess girlfriends who are so stuck in their own personal ruts that they can't even work in a playdate:

CINDERELLA WAS ALWAYS BUSY CLEANING....

RAPUNZEL NEVER LEFT HER TOWER....

SNOW WHITE CONSTANTLY HAD HER HANDS FULL, AND SLEEPING BEAUTY WAS ALWAYS TIRED....

Suddenly Princess Antonia has the urge to leave it all behind. She zooms outside, out of the palace for a change and runs into the nearby forest. As she begins to enjoy her freedom, her princess buddies take notice. Rapunzel stops braiding her hair and falls in behind Antonia. Cinderella follows in her classic footwear.

"OUCH!" she cries as she tries to keep up with the two princesses in her signature crystal slippers.

"TAKE OFF THOSE SHOES AND COME WITH US!" CALLS ANTONIA.

Snow White, hanging out the Seven Dwarfs' wet wash, drops her clothespins and follows suit. Sleeping Beauty wipes the sleep out of her eyes and trots drowsily along behind them. The Royal Run picks up a following--Red Riding Hood and the Three Goats Gruff join in and nobody stops until they reach the sea just as the sun is setting. What a view!

"WE TOTALLY SHOULD DO THIS AGAIN!" SAID SNOW WHITE.

"Changes in latitude, changes in attitude," sang Jimmy Buffet, and true to that advice, running away from it all blasts the princesses out of their royal routines. Rapunzel gets a haircut, Sleeping Beauty yens for yoga and finds new energy, and Cinderella and Snow White figure out how to get those chores out of the way in time for personal pursuits, in the spoofy conclusion of Smilyana Coh's Princesses on the Run (RP Kids, 2013), an alternative look at the princess lifestyle. Princess fans will giggle as their favorites break out of their routine, and Coh's fresh and stylized illustrations are a delightful change from the usual pink-tinged royal fluff.  As  Kirkus Reviews summarizes it all, "A prettily conceived and executed design, a decorative Eastern European sensibility and a fairly unconventional storyline make Princess Antonia stand out among the current crop of princesses."