Overruled! My Rules for Being a Pretty Princess by Heath McKenzie

"MORE THAN ANYTHING IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD, I WANT TO BE A PRETTY PRINCESS."

No sooner has the girl in the lavender tutu finished her wish than, without even a POOF! or a Bibbibety-Boppety--Boo, a pretty princess in a fluffy white dress appears before her and asks if she really, really wants princess training.

"GASP! Oh, I DO!"

In no time the princess wannabe finds herself being laced in to wasp-waisted white gown. Now she's gasping for real!

Her hair is done up in a tiara-friendly beehive and she's slathered with makeup.

"BUT I LOOK A BIT BOR---"

No time for girl-talk. It's tea time for pretty princesses. Whispering that the rules for pretty princesses require that they don't get their gowns dirty and that they don't actually eat any of the goodies on the tea table, and that they certainly don't boogie down with the music, her royal mentor tells her what all of this is REALLY all about.

"NOW WE MUST WAIT FOR... OUR PRINCES."

They wait... and wait... and wait... and wait.

YAWN!

A handsome prince arrives, along with an overdressed, freckle-faced princeling who sticks out his tongue at his presumed "princess bride."

Our princess apprentice suddenly knows more than she ever wanted to know about being a princess.

In her first and last royal decree, our girl over-rules the rules, especially that deal-killing last one--

WAIT FOR A HANDSOME PRINCE.

Herth McKenzie's My Rules for Being a Pretty Princess (Sourcebook/Jabberwocky, 2015) has a lot of fun with the down-side of princessing, with plenty of visual humor in the double-page spread in which the two bored princesses try to stay PERFECT while they wait for their royal suitors to show up.

Pair this reluctant royal with Carmen LaVigna Coyle's Do Princesses Wear Hiking Boots?