Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

One mirror ties the stories of eight princesses together.The princess glut in today's mediaespecially the contemporary threads of the "girl power" ones, such as the entrepreneurial Tiana in Disney's Princess and the Frog and the warrior princesses like said studio's Mulan and Merida from Bravemight make readers roll their eyes at another. However, the author ties this enchanting European-heavy multicultural cast of preteen royalty together through the narrative device of a confidence-boosting enchanted mirror. It all begins when the looking glass, which once hung on an enchantress's wall, flippantly tells its owner that it knows nothing about princesses' attributes. The enchantress shrinks the mirror to compact-size and sends it on a time- and alternate-world-spanning adventure to places coded, from the characters' names such as Hlose and Ellen, Leila al'Aqbar, Abayome, Tica, Anya, and Zarah, and other details, as continental Europe, War and Peace-era Russia and Paris, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and New York City. The author deftly weaves the arc of the mirror's fantastic journey into each girl's journey of self-discovery, from becoming a nation's herbal healer to an anti-gentrification activist. Best of all, though the mirror is a device, it is not a gimmick thanks to the author's engaging plot and the illustrator's evocatively playful, full-colored drawings that border each story.These tales are enchanting in both their realness and their whimsy. (Fantasy. 9-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Filled with varied expressions of what it means to excel, culturally diverse fairy tale imaginings by Farrant (The Children of Castle Rock) pair with Corry’s naïf-style illustrations to present a series of episodic stories bound together by a single object. When an enchantress employs her magic mirror to discern, for her goddaughter’s benefit, the ways to become an “excellent princess,” the mirror—made pocket-size—visits young women in various locales and eras, all of whom are people who get things done. Princess Héloïse undertakes a forest quest to save her sickly sister, Princess Tica must decide how to handle a beloved crocodile, and Princess Abayome’s world is upended by her father’s new wife. From Russian royalty fallen on hard times to a young activist living in a concrete apartment building, each must identify what makes her unique and use those traits to overcome her obstacles. Joyful retellings of time-honored fairy tales to inspire and challenge a new generation. Ages 9–12. (May)

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

One mirror ties the stories of eight princesses together. The princess glut in today's media—especially the contemporary threads of the "girl power" ones, such as the entrepreneurial Tiana in Disney's Princess and the Frog and the warrior princesses like said studio's Mulan and Merida from Brave—might make readers roll their eyes at another. However, the author ties this enchanting European-heavy multicultural cast of preteen royalty together through the narrative device of a confidence-boosting enchanted mirror. It all begins when the looking glass, which once hung on an enchantress's wall, flippantly tells its owner that it knows nothing about princesses' attributes. The enchantress shrinks the mirror to compact-size and sends it on a time- and alternate-world-spanning adventure to places coded, from the characters' names such as Héloïse and Ellen, Leila al'Aqbar, Abayome, Tica, Anya, and Zarah, and other details, as continental Europe, War and Peace-era Russia and Paris, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and New York City. The author deftly weaves the arc of the mirror's fantastic journey into each girl's journey of self-discovery, from becoming a nation's herbal healer to an anti-gentrification activist. Best of all, though the mirror is a device, it is not a gimmick thanks to the author's engaging plot and the illustrator's evocatively playful, full-colored drawings that border each story. These tales are enchanting in both their realness and their whimsy. (Fantasy. 9-12) Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Horn Book
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

The framing structure for this collection of princess stories is elaborate. When an enchantress is invited to be the godmother to a princess, she realizes that she doesn't know what qualities a true princess should embody, so she sends her magic mirror on a quest, across the world and across centuries, to observe princesses and come up with a definition of princess-ly excellence. As the enchantress loses and finds the mirror, we move from one folktale-inflected setting to another -- medieval Europe, North Africa, Scotland, the Amazon -- all reminiscent of the old-fashioned tradition of "fairy tales from many lands," there as here unsourced. The eight stories feature heroic princesses who are physically brave, rebellious, cheeky, intellectually curious, empathetic, and attuned to the natural world. They save their communities from attack, they rescue those in peril, they stand up for themselves, they speak truth to power. They find satisfaction, acceptance, and love. The writing is jaunty, and the lushly illustrated and decorated pages are full of movement, detail, and character. The point here is obviously an antidote to the glitter-and-big-hair trope of the pop-culture princess, but the illustrator does throw a sop to princess enthusiasts with her generous use of pink. (c) Copyright 2021. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Strung loosely together under the premise that an enchantress is using a magic mirror to learn about princesses all around the world and throughout time, eight lovely short stories are presented in a way that feels at once fresh and familiar. Each princess featured is the sort who saves herself, and some of the stories hint just enough at a classic tale that readers will feel completely at home. Female friendships and empowerment, diversity as a given, and Corry’s gorgeous, full-color watercolor illustrations deliver the whole package. Digestible in bits or all at once, this is one that readers will return to over and over again for inspiration. As the book closes, the enchantress asks the magic mirror to tell her what it learned about being an excellent princess. Its reply is that they are “brave and fierce and loyal, with big dreams, and even bigger hearts, and such a thirst for the world.” In short, they are “excellent people.”