Prince of the Dolomites

by Tomie dePaola

Because of the love of Prince Pazzo of the Dolomites for Princess Lucia of the Moon, the black peaks of the Dolomite mountains are changed to glimmering white, blue, pink, and yellow.

Genres: Picture Books, Fiction, Childrens

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Tomie dePaola (pronounced Tommy da-POW-la) was best known for his books for children.

He had a five-decade writing and illustrating career during which he published more than 270 books, including 26 Fairmount Avenue, Strega Nona, and Meet the Barkers.

Tomie dePaola and his work have been recognized with the Caldecott Honor Award, the Newbery Honor Award, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, and the New Hampshire Governor's Arts Award of Living Treasure.

Reviews

[Mir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Odd little folktale: a widowed queen, a prince obsessed with the moon, magical gnomes, darksome mountains...

[Cristina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Summary: This folktale comes from northern Italy where the author retells the story of how a prince falls in love with a princess who lives on the moon. He helps the “Salvani” who, in return, take him to the moon to meet the princess, but he cannot stay long. If he stays too long he will become blind. The princess decides to go with the prince and marry him, but soon became ill due to the darkness of the earth. The Salvani once again helped. This time they brought beams from the moon to the mountains of Italy.
Evaluation: Think this is a good story of how certain things came to be. This book does a great job in depicting how the Dolomite's in Italy came to have such a pale color.
Teaching Idea: This would be a great book to teach the characteristics of folktales. I would use this book and have the students compare it to myths and fairy tales.

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my favorite tale when I was in elementary school! I been trying to remember the title of this book forever! I remember the very ending page, where you see the couple on this balcony in front of these very pretty pinkish-whitish mountains, but not the rest of it. I would highly recommend this story.

[Capn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. Requisite reading for anyone heading to NE Italy and the Dolomites / Tirol-Tyrol Trentino region. It has everything - storytelling, a royal household, an impossible love affair, a moon princess, ...some sort of Italian hobbits..., the origin of Edelweiss (Stella Alpina, in Italian), and why the Dolomites seem to glow. Bellissimo. :)

I'm so grateful to OpenLibrary and Internet Archive for lending this, because it's really hard to come by on the secondhand market.

[Csenge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous story. The pictures are pretty too, and I liked the frame story with the Storyteller - but really, the legend itself is pretty amazing on its own.

[Aidan · Rating 5 out of 5]

this rare fairy tale is so beautiful

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite childhood books.

[Sonya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’d never heard this little folk tale from Italy.

[Irina H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful folk tale telling the story of how the Dolomites came to be.

[waking beasts · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read this book, truly at least 2000x, maybe more. My ever favorite book since birth...

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful, magical story from my childhood!