The Princess in Black: The Princess in Black 1

The people in these books are funny, brave, strong, resilient, clever, and kind: Just like you.

Who says princesses dont wear black? When trouble raises its blue monster head, Princess Magnolia ditches her flouncy dresses and becomes the Princess in Black!

Princess Magnolia is having hot chocolate and scones with Duchess Wigtower when . . . Brring! Brring! The monster alarm! A big blue monster is threatening the goats! Stopping monsters is no job for dainty Princess Magnolia. But luckily Princess Magnolia has a secret —shes also the Princess in Black, and stopping monsters is the perfect job for her! Can the princess sneak away, transform into her alter ego, and defeat the monster before the nosy duchess discovers her secret? From award-winning writing team of Shannon and Dean Hale and illustrator LeUyen Pham, here is the first in a humorous and action-packed chapter book series for young readers who like their princesses not only prim and perfect, but also dressed in black.

"The authors of Rapunzel's Revenge and Calamity Jack, writing here for a slightly younger audience, successfully turn the treacly princess genre on its ear, offering beginning readers a clever, adventurous, and self-reliant heroine who is equally at home in black or pink. Pham's watercolor-and-ink illustrations, rendered in the style of the Disney classics, effectively contrast Magnolia's identities and emphasize the text’s humor. Clever details (Duff and his goats eat popcorn on the sidelines as they watch the PIB do her thing) and short manageable sentences make for a promising, and sure to be wildly popular, new series debut." Booklist starred review

"This charmingly told book has lovely old-fashioned illustrations and a great message: You can’t judge a princess by the color of her gown." New York Times Book Review

"Action, clever humor, delightful illustrations and expectation-defying secret identities — when does the next one come out?" Kirkus Review

Shannon and Dean Hale are the husband-and-wife writing team behind the graphic novels Rapunzels Revenge and Calamity Jack, both illustrated by Nathan Hale. Shannon Hale is also the author of the Newbery Honor-winning Princess Academy as well as The Goose Girl, Enna Burning, and other novels. They live in Salt Lake City, Utah.

LeUyen Pham is the illustrator of many books for children, including Gods Dream by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Douglas Carlton Abrams and Aunt Marys Rose by Douglas Wood, as well as the Freckleface Strawberry books by Julianne Moore. LeUyen Pham lives in California.