What do you think?
Rate this book
Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper
Barbie: Princess and the Pauper Jr. Chapter Book
Barbie is one of the top girls' properties - the world's #1 fashion doll. Now she is starring in her 4th direct-to-video adventure, the Princess and the Pauper -- sure to be a bestseller.
It's a whole new twist on the classic fairy tale, with Barbie in the role of both princess and pauper! This junior chapter book is based on the latest in Mattel's blockbuster line of video movies, which include Barbie in the Nutcracker, Barbie as Rapunzel, and Barbie of Swan Lake.
It's a whole new twist on the classic fairy tale, with Barbie in the role of both princess and pauper! This junior chapter book is based on the latest in Mattel's blockbuster line of video movies, which include Barbie in the Nutcracker, Barbie as Rapunzel, and Barbie of Swan Lake.
- GenresChildrens
80 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2004
2 people are currently reading
106 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 7, 2025
4 stars. I read this book before I watched the film and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The plot—a princess having to choose duty to her kingdom over hr own desires and an orphan pauper trying to pay off family debts and vainly hankering after her dreams—is perhaps cliché, but it's sweet and honestly somewhat relatable. The villains weren't very scary but I'm always down for a political story where the MCs have to thwart a coup and save the throne. Of course there was a little unrealisticness but the romances were kinda cute (Justin is a much more respectable dude than Dominick, though, in my opinion) and the writing wasn't bad... and most of all, I LOVED the dresses SO much!! Anyways, after reading this it made me want to watch the film, which I quite loved. :)
June 16, 2021
My past self ( aprox . age of 8) rated this infinity stars ... my present self without shame gives it the same . The comedy is on point, and everything is just - *chefs kiss * ! I remember distinctly dressing up as Analise for Halloween that year , and somehow I still have the crown . Kids today don't know what they're missing .The nostalgia is real .
July 30, 2012
Just as I loved the movie version, I also loved this book.
January 2, 2018
A lot of my thoughts for the Princess and the Pauper junior novelization match my thoughts on the Swan Lake one. Obviously, the movie is better. Obviously, the text is very dumbed-down and meant for intro-level readers. The best part of the book are the pictures, where dolls are posed, recreating scenes from the movies.
But there are a few differences this time around. Rather than simply copying and pasting dialogue from the script, this book makes adjustments to present the material in a new form (no musical numbers, a more condensed time frame): there are scenes (Anneliese’s introduction) that don’t happen in the film at all, characters show up in scenes where they didn’t appear in the movie (Anneliese is there to discuss her wedding plans, when before she was absent), and the villain is defeated by somebody else. It’s an interesting approach, but one that works surprisingly well. Princess and the Pauper has a script that is ten thousand times better than Swan Lake—honestly, I think it’s the best Barbie script of them all—so the book is automatically working with superior material than Swan Lake, but even the prose and summarization of events fare better than they did in the predecessor (to the point where I might have thought it was written by a different author had I not been told otherwise).
Secondly, while the reading experience has improved (to the book’s credit), the pictures have lessened (to its detriment). Maybe that was because Princess and the Pauper has a weightier plot than Swan Lake so more of the pages had to be devoted to text, or maybe the creative team didn’t feel like putting together that many shots. At any rate, there are probably half the amount of pictures in Princess and the Pauper’s junior novelization as there were for the ones in Swan Lake, and it’s somewhat disappointing. The shots that are there are lovely—the extent to which they managed to recreate locations such as Anneliese’s bedroom, the village, or even the exterior of the castle are ridiculously impressive (honestly, I can’t believe they didn’t sell toy sets). Anneliese and Erika are some of the most beautiful Barbie dolls released (and probably the two best heroines), and they look gorgeous in this novelization—Anneliese’s dress, in particular, is a sparkly, billowy sea of pink fabric, bringing to mind memories of Glinda the Good Witch’s gown. The only sore spot is the Preminger doll, who is boring and looks not a thing like the animated character (they had a passable Rothbart, but not a Preminger? Inconceivable!)—and, of course, the shortage of overall photos.
So that’s The Princess and the Pauper’s junior novelization: perhaps better-written than Swan Lake, but somewhat inferior from a visual standpoint. That’s a bit of a let-down to me, because the appeal of these books for me is in the photos, but if the point of this book is introducing children to books, I suppose the better-written element matters more. At any rate, this is the last of the Barbie junior novelizations that used actual dolls instead of CGI illustrations, and although some of those CGI illustrations are undeniably pretty, there was a quaintness and a novelty to the doll dioramas that I miss in subsequent junior novelizations.
But there are a few differences this time around. Rather than simply copying and pasting dialogue from the script, this book makes adjustments to present the material in a new form (no musical numbers, a more condensed time frame): there are scenes (Anneliese’s introduction) that don’t happen in the film at all, characters show up in scenes where they didn’t appear in the movie (Anneliese is there to discuss her wedding plans, when before she was absent), and the villain is defeated by somebody else. It’s an interesting approach, but one that works surprisingly well. Princess and the Pauper has a script that is ten thousand times better than Swan Lake—honestly, I think it’s the best Barbie script of them all—so the book is automatically working with superior material than Swan Lake, but even the prose and summarization of events fare better than they did in the predecessor (to the point where I might have thought it was written by a different author had I not been told otherwise).
Secondly, while the reading experience has improved (to the book’s credit), the pictures have lessened (to its detriment). Maybe that was because Princess and the Pauper has a weightier plot than Swan Lake so more of the pages had to be devoted to text, or maybe the creative team didn’t feel like putting together that many shots. At any rate, there are probably half the amount of pictures in Princess and the Pauper’s junior novelization as there were for the ones in Swan Lake, and it’s somewhat disappointing. The shots that are there are lovely—the extent to which they managed to recreate locations such as Anneliese’s bedroom, the village, or even the exterior of the castle are ridiculously impressive (honestly, I can’t believe they didn’t sell toy sets). Anneliese and Erika are some of the most beautiful Barbie dolls released (and probably the two best heroines), and they look gorgeous in this novelization—Anneliese’s dress, in particular, is a sparkly, billowy sea of pink fabric, bringing to mind memories of Glinda the Good Witch’s gown. The only sore spot is the Preminger doll, who is boring and looks not a thing like the animated character (they had a passable Rothbart, but not a Preminger? Inconceivable!)—and, of course, the shortage of overall photos.
So that’s The Princess and the Pauper’s junior novelization: perhaps better-written than Swan Lake, but somewhat inferior from a visual standpoint. That’s a bit of a let-down to me, because the appeal of these books for me is in the photos, but if the point of this book is introducing children to books, I suppose the better-written element matters more. At any rate, this is the last of the Barbie junior novelizations that used actual dolls instead of CGI illustrations, and although some of those CGI illustrations are undeniably pretty, there was a quaintness and a novelty to the doll dioramas that I miss in subsequent junior novelizations.
May 11, 2016
I had the movie and the book. I'm not ashamed. I was just a Barbie girl living in a Barbie girl. My favorite Barbie book wasn't Princess and the Pauper though. I preferred the Nutcracker book and story, but this was a close second. Recommended for young fans of Barbie.
February 17, 2013
The book was really amazing just like the movie version.
December 22, 2013
I enjoy this Barbie book. I like how they use the real dolls in the pictures instead of taking parts from the movie. I think it is more creative to use the dolls.
June 20, 2015
It shows the real life.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews