ABC of Fantastic Princes

by Willy Puchner

Overview

An alphabet of pioneering princes—from A to Z—by the acclaimed Austrian designer Willy Puchner Meet the princes from A to Z. Some are ambitious, some bold, some daring and dashing . . . but each of the twenty-six frogs are striking in character and charm and come bearing extraordinary gifts and talents. Puchner’s opulent and incomparable illustrations make this abecedary a marvel for all ages.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780735841987
Publisher:	NorthSouth Books
Publication date:	02/01/2015
Pages:	64
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.70(h) x 0.10(d)
Lexile:	AD1060L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Willy Puchner, born in 1952 in Lower Austria, works as a photographer, designer, and author in Oberschützen, Vienna, and beyond. After studying philosophy and history, he followed his desires and visited distant cities: New York, Sydney and Paris, Venice, Tokyo, Honolulu, Rome, and Cairo. He has published numerous books, shows his paintings in exhibitions, publishes in magazines, and leads workshops and lectures. Puchner’s The ABC of Fabulous Princesses and The ABC of Fantastic Princes have been praised for their inventiveness. This is his third book for NorthSouth Books.

Editorial Reviews

01/01/2015
PreS-Gr 2—Meet Prince Willoughby and 25 other princes—amphibians all—from around the world, each of whom is called upon to introduce himself to a gathering of princesses. Starting with Augustus, "born in August in Augsburg, Germany" the parade of princes includes Willoughby and continues on to Zwaambi of Zambia who is "full of zeal and zing." Each frog or toad prince presents himself in highly sophisticated, sometimes challenging, always alliterative language accompanied by full-page, abstracted portraits of froggy-faced royalty in generally upright, rather human form. Illustrations appear to be watercolor. Spot art on each page creates visual continuity and suggests something in the prince's speech. What could be considered cultural tokenism may be due to limitations of the form. For example, "gorgeous Prince George from Georgia, USA" had a gold-miner granddaddy, and his "daddy Gordon was a guitar-slinging godfather to the greatest gospel-singing group in all of Gainesville." Each princess has found her prince by the end, and the red rabbit master of ceremonies asks readers which prince they would choose. In any case, this unusual approach, visually and textually, may inspire further research to identify places and word meaning.—Maria B. Salvadore, formerly at District of Columbia Public Library

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