The Christmas Princess

by Mariah Carey, Michaela Angela Davis, Fuuji Takashi (Illustrator)

The Queen of Christmas introduces . . . Little Mariah!

There was one time unlike any other,
when everyone pitched in and helped one another . . .

CHRISTMAS TIME!

Mariah Carey, lovingly and aptly known as the Queen of Christmas, has brought forth a unique, heartwarming, and modern fairy tale with The Christmas Princess, starring Little Mariah! Like her historic, globally adored song “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” this story is an instant and inclusive family holiday classic. While firmly placed in the tradition of Christmas storytelling, The Christmas Princess is infused with her one-of-a-kind festive Mariah magic and musicality.

Little Mariah doesn’t have much and doesn’t want a lot, but there is just one thing she longs for: a peaceful and joyous holiday season. Feeling outcast and alone, Little Mariah sets off on a wintry, wondrous journey, ultimately discovering the healing power of her voice to spread the spirit of Christmas at home and all around the world.

Genres: Christmas, Picture Books, Childrens, Holiday

48 pages, Hardcover

Published November 1, 2022

About the author

Mariah Carey is an American artist of Black and Irish ancestry.

She is an award-winning singer, songwriter, producer, actress, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. She has recorded fifteen studio albums and holds numerous industry records, including the most number one singles of any solo artist in history.

She has received many accolades, honors, and distinctions throughout her career, including the Congressional Award for her charitable work with youth through the Fresh Air Fund's Camp Mariah. She is an inductee into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Carey remains forever thankful and fiercely loyal to her global family of fans.

Ms. Carey is the mother of two children, Moroccan and Monroe.

Reviews

[Cherlynn | cherreading · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book might be only 40-odd pages, but I couldn't wait to be done with it. Absolutely dreadful!

I was excited to see this at the library and didn't even read the synopsis. Loved the author's note and lush illustrations. However, it took only the first page to turn me off. I couldn't get into the story at all, which is saying quite a lot since this is a children's book.

The rhymes are so forced, the writing is clunky and the plot is all over the place. One minute she's here, the next minute she's there, and random characters appear suddenly.

I think this might be the worst picture book I've ever read. How can a kid's book be such a huge miss? It's such a shame as the illustrations are gorgeous. 1 star for the artist...

[Ben Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a cute Christmas fairytale with gorgeous illustrations.

It's told in third person as if Mariah is telling you a bedtime story. So the plot is very much like that; winding and whimsical.

[Christina · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is terrible! The grammar is terrible with multiple sentences that do not agree. Some of the sentences start and meander away leaving you to wonder what just happened. I think there was one paragraph that scanned well as you read it aloud.

There's characters that are introduced and then disappear. Then new bad characters are introduced and they nonsensically are turned good. The characterization is lazy and stereotypes are overused. The children this story is supposed to be aimed at with not understand what's happening.

And they write that "Mariah's little song sucks." Last time I checked this wasn't an okay term to put in a book aimed at preschool children.

Henry Holt should be ashamed of themselves for putting out this unedited dreck!

[Aylin Kuhls · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ein richtig schöner Zeichenstil aber eine komplett bescheuerte Geschichte. 🫣 Da retten auch die schönsten Bilder nichts.

[Alyssa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have never written a review for any of the probably thousands of books I have read my daughter. This is the dumbest book ever. It’s like they googled “large words” and found a way to squeeze them in. There was no plot, random pointless events happened, and it’s like they couldn’t figure out if they wanted to rhyme or not. Horrible boo. Negative stars.

[Kyle St George · Rating 1 out of 5]

Literally the worst book I have ever read. Literally. I feel worse about wasting money on this than I do about wasting money on food that is rotten. What befuddles me is how there are any positive reviews—it was that bad. Treat this book the way you’d treat a rabid skunk on the porch. Give a wide berth.

[Camille Sylvester · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow. This was just bad. The only redeeming quality of this book is the gorgeous illustrations. The title and cover were so adorable, I bought it without noticing who the author was. As I read it to my kids, I kept cringing at the whiny, entitled, self-absorbed narration, not to mention that the author couldn't seem to settle on a plot, so it kept going off in random directions without finishing the previous plotlines. I kept thinking, who wrote this trash? When I checked the cover again, it all made sense. Diva extraordinaire herself, who, like her story character, appears shallow, whiny, and completely disconnected from reality but has a lovely voice. The illustrator and co-writer did their best to make this story palatable, but it's gilded garbage.

And can we just talk for a minute about the line where Little Mariah says that her attic room is so sad and tiny so thank goodness she's "pretty thin"??? I'd not let any child near this book for that line alone. Hello, body issues. I don't think I've ever been disgusted by a book enough to want my money back, but that's where I'm at--mortified that my dollars went to support.

[Jemma · Rating 1 out of 5]

The worst!! I knew better when I bought this, but was drawn to the illustrations. The illustrations were the only good thing in this book! It made no sense. The rhyming was terrible. Some lines super long some sort. The grammar was off. Also, the mom who doesn’t talk only sings but looks like the mom from tangled? And randomly she disappeared and there’s more bad characters? But suddenly they’re nice because she sings? What?? I’m so confused. I can’t believe that this got published.

[Ankur · Rating 5 out of 5]

A feel-good fairy tale by the queen of Christmas, how could you not love this book?
Also, the illustrations were amazing! Kudos to the illustrator!

[Munroe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh Mariah! An enchanting children’s story that often veers into enchantment and too many tangents - true to Mariah’s artistic and personal signature. Quite impressive to see how she truly did manifest and materialize Christmas joy, when read with the knowledge of her story from her memoir though!

[Kayla · Rating 2 out of 5]

My 9-year-old “All I Want for Christmas is You” mega fan asked me to stop reading this book three pages in, because it made no sense and wasn’t at all engaging. The illustrations are kind of cute, but I can’t give more than two stars to this story.

[Amanda Novak]

No. just no. Tried to much, the writing was terrible. I was excited as Mariah Carey is a Christmas princess with her singing, but no to this book.

[Matthew Fraser · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don’t write many reviews on goodreads. But after reading this to my daughter, who loves Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas is You, the song and the Netflix movie, I was compelled to come here and hopefully save someone else the 15 minutes of misery that I just endured. This is the clunkiest, most disjointed children’s book I’ve ever had the misfortune of reading. It is more of a fever dream of a very troubled youth than an uplifting Christmas tale. The rhyming is both forced and sporadic, Mariah should invest some of her royalties into a rhyming dictionary, and perhaps spend an hour or two researching what a meter is. I have never rushed through a book so fast just so I could be done.

I will say the illustrations are nice.

[Frida · Rating 2 out of 5]

1 ⭐️, but gotta appreciate the wonderful illustrations - they did nothing wrong

[Erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible. Just terrible. I should have read the reviews before buying this. One star for the illustrations which were the only good thing about this book.

[January · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Christmas Princess by Mariah Carey and Michaela Angela Davis, illustrated by Fuuji Takashi
50-page Kindle Ebook

Genre: Children's Literature, Holiday > Christmas; Modern Fairytale, Picture Book

Featuring: Letter From Author to Younger Self, Shack, Parrot, Diva, Piano, Poverty, Cats, Bullies, Monroe Fairy, Sometimes I Rhyme, Moroccan Cameo, Singing

Rating as a movie: PG

Artists and Songs for the Soundtrack: Pavarotti, "When Christmas Comes" by Mariah Carey, "Deck The Halls" "Underneath The Stars" by Mariah Carey, "All I Want For Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey

My rating: ⭐️⭐️½🧚🏽‍♀️🎄👸🏽

My thoughts: I have put off reading this book long enough. The cover and title just didn't grab me so I wasn't in a rush upon its release. Now that I read it I could have waited longer. There is a lot of flowery language and they keep changing their minds about whether or not they want the lines to rhyme. I'm a fast reader, but this was a bit frustrating as I never found the rhythm of this story. Speaking of the story, there really wasn't a plot; it was just random occurrences from start to finish.

Recommend to others: It's your call; that's all I'm going to say.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Complete vanity project. First off, this book is massively too wordy for a picture book. And it’s about little Mariah; Mariah Carey when she was younger. She even talks to herself in the form of a letter at the beginning of a book. It is also not an adverb or an adjective that I think this woman has forgotten about. Everything must have three to four, sometimes five adjectives to describe it. And things are constantly told to the reader over and over and over again. While this book does have a co-writer I don’t know what the job of the co-writer was. Because this does sound like Mariah Carey, but it is also so over the top. The illustrations are wonderful. I give credit or credit is due. But as for this book, no it’s not worth the time it takes to read it. Which is a shame. Giving a celebrity a vanity picture just to grab the money of readers. At least make a better book. Part of me wonders what Mariah‘s family, particularly her mom and her grandmother, might say about how her early beginnings are described and illustrated in this book. It makes me sad for them even though I don’t know them or anything about them.

[Silvana partilhar.paixoes · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 J’ai trouvé cette histoire de Noël (largement inspirée de la vie de Mariah Carey, pour ne pas dire autobiographique) très mignonne, bien que simple.
Les illustrations sont très belles, en revanche l’écriture laisse à désirer, je l’ai lu en VF donc je pensais que la traduction ne rendait pas honneur à la VO mais visiblement le problème se trouvait déjà dans la VO.
C’est dommage mais ça reste un joli livres pour enfants.

[rena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh how I missed reading fairy tales! Especially Christmas themed ones 🥰

[Sherry Scheline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Mariah. This story could have been a bit better on format: some of the “stuff” was not needed.

[Sanah Sadaruddin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A whimsical little Christmas fairytale gift for my niece that I had to read for myself first (bc duh)🎄

[Tori Bass · Rating 1 out of 5]

Literally the worst children’s book I have ever read. It made no sense, was overly detailed, and then started rhyming at the end???

[Maddie W · Rating 1 out of 5]

Truly the worst kids book ever…. It needed an editor! It is clunky to read, and the vocab is beyond any kid’s comprehension (i.e. cantankerous). The plot feels like an acid trip - there is a comb that’s evil for all of one paragraph, the shamey shame boys which serve no purpose. The pictures are great, but that’s it.

[Anna at Brewedupbooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is GORGEOUS. The illustrator did a fantastic job. The book itself is very poorly written. The writers attempted rhyme in a very erratic pattern and it was obvious to me as I was reading aloud. Some rhyme patterns were ABAC, some were ABCB, and others were AABC. It also led to weird word choices to make the rhymes happen. The character names of “La Diva” for mom and then continually giving us the extra context that Pavarotti was “Mike the Bird” was just odd. The use of language like “loser” and “stupid” had me verbally editing while reading to my 4 year old who absolutely LOVES Mariah and the Prime video movie “All I Want for Christmas is You.” Finally, the plot was all over the place. We went from poverty to mean neighbors to random bullies in the forest, enchanted elements, to singing. It was just a mess. I would expect so much more from a book written by a creative director and pop superstar, especially since it was published by Macmillan! What makes me sad is I’m in an aspiring children’s book authors’ group and there’s so much talent being suppressed and denied by publishers yet celebrities can put this out and still make millions. Skip this book.

[Ashley Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book has beautiful illustrations and that’s as far as it goes. My daughter got this for Christmas and it’s so awful. It’s written terribly with no flow and uses phrases like “you suck” and “little loser” “shamey shame”also says “thank goodness Mariah was thin” which I’m shocked someone like Mariah carey would write in a book considering how her body has been scrutinized in the media. Definitely not worth the read and will be promptly burning it.

[Mal · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is beautifully illustrated but the story itself is just strange. It is supposed to be about self worth and a positive message but it just comes across as someone telling their bad childhood memories in a weird way. Absolutely not tied to Christmas itself at all.

**Bully character language is too harsh and I had to skip over it for my 7 year old.

[Sara · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to love this, but it barely made sense. Even for a kids book, I’m so confused, like what were they trying to do here? It seemed like there was supposed to be some kind of rhyming scheme that popped in every few lines…really forced and only detracted from the story. I can see the story’s potential. If only it didn’t try so hard…

[Stephanie Djaja-Wesson · Rating 1 out of 5]

The illustrations of this book is the only saving grace. The illustrations are beautiful but unfortunately the writing is atrocious. It seems disjointed and inconsistent in whether it rhymes or not. The word selection is abhorrent. It just feels like a book that was hoping that Mariah’s popularity would carry it through.

[Sara Adams · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is painful to try to read aloud. The rhyme structure is sporadic, phrasing is inconsistent, and the storyline is terrible. Don't waste your time unless you're going to only look at the pictures, those are nice. Don't understand how this book made it past editors and was published.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars because the illustrations were stunning. The story, not so much.