Book Review – Princesses Wear Pants by Savannah Guthrie & Allison Oppenheim

– What Is Fashionable, Anyway? –

Book Blurb

In the tradition of Not All Princesses Dress in Pink and Princess in Black, Princesses Wear Pants follows the unflappable Princess Penelope Pineapple, who knows how to get the job done while staying true to herself. Princess Penelope lives in a beautiful palace with a closet full of beautiful dresses. But being a princess is much, much more than beauty. In fact, every morning Princess Penelope runs right past her frilly dresses to choose from her beloved collection of pants!
 
What she wears each day depends on which job she has to do. Will she command the royal air force sporting her sequined flight suit? Will she find her zen in her yoga pants and favorite tee? Or, will she work in the kingdom’s vegetable garden with pocketed overalls for all of her tools?
 
Unfortunately for Princess Penelope, not everyone in the Pineapple Kingdom thinks pants are always appropriate princess attire. When the grand Lady Busyboots demands that Princess Penelope must wear a gown to the annual Pineapple Ball, the young royal finds a clever way to express herself. Penelope’s courage (and style choices) result in her saving the day! 
 
In their debut children’s picture book, Savannah Guthrie and Allison Oppenheim team up for a savvy and imaginative story that celebrates fashion and girl power. Perfect for fans of Nickelodeon’s Nella the Princess Knight, Princesses Wear Pants challenges gender stereotypes in the name of individuality, showing girls it’s not how they look but what they do that matters.

My Thoughts

Princess Penelope Pineapple loves beautiful dresses and her closet full of tiaras. Being a proper young lady she paints, sings and even dances. And did you know . . .

(shhh) she even has a collection of pants! She uses those when gowns have no place. Since she isn’t totally about gowns and tiaras we see that she skateboards, exercises, tends the garden and more. Things where there is no place for a skirt.

“To feed those in need of a meal is my duty,” / Said the princess in pants, paying no mind to beauty.

With solar cars, robots, and cures for the sick, / Her lab coat and corduroys did just the trick.

But when Penelope begins to consider the Pineapple Ball she worries that Grand Lady Busyboots will disapprove of a sparkly pants outfit.

“Pants have no place on a lady!” she’d say. / That’s how it has been, and that’s how it shall stay.

Penelope wears a gown to the ball, but when Miss Fussywiggles (the cat) falls from the castle into the moat who will be prepared to save the day?

What Concerned Me  

While part of me was really happy that this wasn’t one of the seemingly forced feminist picture books that I’ve been seeing so much of, I still had some concerns.

• This topic felt like something more appropriate for the 1970s or before.  Wearing pants as a subject, whether a princess or not, felt out of touch with reality.
• The statement about ignoring the beauty and getting the job done (wearing pants) felt a cruel joke to designers. Do we assume pants aren’t nice looking?
• The story is in rhyme, but it didn’t flow for me. It felt clunky and off at times.

What I Liked Most

I do feel I know where the authors were headed with their story, and I appreciate that they didn’t talk down to dresses and the color pink. I believe their message was to accept that different people and various chores might have different needs for certain clothing. Also that we shouldn’t worry so much about ourselves.

However, that is only my guess as to what the book was meant to convey, since it really wasn’t clear to me.

Authors: Savannah Guthrie & Allison Oppenheim

Illustrator: Eve Byrne

Publisher: Abrams Books for Young Readers (September 12, 2017)