Books like The Princess and the Pea

This is such a wonderful version of this well known story. It's one of my favourite fairy stories and Lauren Child's version has great illustrations and text. The illustrations are paper cut outs and scenes that are so skilfully arranged and photographed. They give you the feeling of looking into a dolls house, there's so much detail to look at. The imagery for this tale is good anyway, the bedraggled princess, the lightening, the castle, the bed with many mattresses, all things I found fascinating in the ladybird version I had as a child. I really like the way Lauren Child added to the story by changing the response of the princess when asked if she slept well to a polite 'very well thank you' as you would do if you were a polite person having been given a bed for the night, so the queen seeks to test her 'delicateness' another way. A really lovely book, it makes a lovely present.