Princess Abigail and the Wonderful Hat

by Steven Kroll, Patience Brewster (Illustrator)

Wishing to control the outcome of her father's hat contest, because she knows she must marry the winner, Princess Abigail accepts the help of a strange green lizard from the forest.

Genres: Picture Books, Fiction, Childrens, Fairy Tales

32 pages, Library Binding

First published March 28, 1991

About the author

Stephen Kroll spoke at schools and conferences all over the world. He was married to the journalist, Kathleen Beckett, and they lived in New York City and an old carriage house in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. When he was not writing or traveling, he played a lot of tennis and walked around looking at everything.

Reviews

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Princess Abigail's royal father, who loves hats more than he loves crowns, finds himself without appropriate head-wear for the fall festival, he holds a hat-making contest whose prize is her hand in marriage. Dismayed beyond words at the prospect of being forced into marriage, Princess Abigail is thrown into complete despair when she sees that the winner is the terribly ugly Prince Grindstone. Fleeing the palace in tears, she eventually finds herself deep in the forest, where she encounters a large green lizard who promises to help her...

I cannot say that this original fairy-tale from author Steven Kroll and illustrator Patience Brewster is destined to become a particular favorite of mine, but then, I picked it up mostly because of its title. Save for my namesake Abigail Adams - yes, I'm a bicentennial baby, and named after our country's second First Lady - there aren't a superfluity of Abigails in the world of children's books, so I was quite excited to stumble across Princess Abigail and the Wonderful Hat on a used-book-cart recently. Leaving the heroine's (lovely) name aside, the story here is indebted to a number of fairy-tale conventions - the contest for the princess' hand, the beauty-and-the-beast pairing - and concludes with the obligatory happy ending. I was a little uncomfortable with the ways in which Prince Grindstone's appearance was made the breaking point for Abigail - shouldn't the larger issue, of being forced to marry anyone against one's will be the focus? - but leaving that aside, it's a fairly engaging tale. The artwork by Brewster is colorful, and although I felt that there was a little too much purple in some of the scenes, generally appealing.

In sum: this was a sweet little fairy-tale, and while I wouldn't recommend anyone exert great effort to track it down, I do think that fans of the genre might enjoy it.

[Jinnn]

The story is so····ridiculous·············maybe I am toooooo old = =

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this is an original story, it is written in the style of a folk tale.

[Jasper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful artwork

http://0rchid-thief.livejournal.com/7...

[Cws]

JE-Kro

[Alienne]

I loved this book as a kid. :)