The Second Princess

by Hiawyn Oram, Tony Ross

The Second Princess tries to get rid of her sister, the First Princess, until she learns that her parents love them both equally.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

28 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1991

About the author

Hiawyn Oram is a very successful author of children's books in Britain. Her books include the popular Not-So-Grizzly Bear Stories, the Animal Heroes series, and Mona the Vampire. She lives in London.

Reviews

[Carmine R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uguali nella diversità

Inutile nascondere l'emozione nel rivedere immagini di un'infanzia oramai lontana e dimenticata nei meandri della memoria.
Il libricino in questione è una tenera fiaba, edita da "Il battello a vapore", capace di affascinare per gli irresistibili disegni e l'atipica protagonista.
Divertente la storia e nobile il finale, il quale si fa carico di veicolare un invito al rispetto totale verso l'altro.

[Skye Kilaen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, the poor Second Princess. She is so tired of being second... so she hatches a plot to get her older sister out of the way for good. It doesn't work out quite as she had hoped. Instead her parents come up with something better. It's funny and heartwrenching in turns, and it's a good story about sharing your feelings to solve problems without being an after-school special. My only caveat is this: the Second Princess seems to have some legitimate complaints, when you compare her clothes and toys with her sister's, as well as how staff treat them both. I'm not sure if that was intended as a depiction of her feelings or as reality. If it's the latter, it seems really bizarre, because her parents obviously love her. I don't think my son noticed, but I was a little disturbed by the disparity.

[Joelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I discovered this gem as I was searching for a read aloud for my kindergartners. It's a great story about a "second" princess who wants to be first. All children can relate to this story in some way-- and it fostered great conversations about sharing and why being "first" isn't really all that important. A sweet book and a great read aloud.

[Michael Watts · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book tells the story of the second princess, who gets incredibly frustrated at being the younger sister and always being in the shadow of her older sister. She plots to get rid of her older sister so that she can be first for once, eventually getting the attention of her parents, who manage to come up with a great compromise.

I liked the frank way that this book deals with the frustration of being the younger sibling, something I found many children could relate to very easily. The exaggerated nature of the second princess' actions makes it easy to look at and discuss how justified/reasonable she is being. The plot may go a little too far in places, but the basic theme is very relatable, and extreme enough to demonstrate to older siblings how frustrated younger ones can get.

I read this with a nursery class, many of whom related well to the angst of being a younger sibling. This would work well with children much older though, as the theme is quite universal and the discussion of frustration, inferiority and compromise can be dealt with in a lot of depth if the children can manage it.

This book is quite funny and as a basic story can be read on its own, but lends itself very well to discussion of sibling rivalry, underdogs, feelings of inferiority and to finding good compromises.

[Michael Mccaul · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story see a second Princess set of in a mission to usurp her sister the first sister so she would no longer be second. Needless to say she gets into a whole lot of bother before her parents show themselves to be a deft hand at politics in finding just the right compromise that solved the problem. This story like many for this age range (5-7) has very useful lessons for children that could help in their day to day socialisation. I think I would use this to begin a circle time session.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I chose this for my 3-5 year old reative drama class, I did not like parts of the story for my youngest participants. I chose it initally because they complain of a lot of sibling drama ;) and most of them are the younger sibling. The plot is that she wants to get rid of her sister so that was a little iffy, but I love the use of compromise at the end.

[Mary Irureta-Balletta · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my favorite book as a kid. I bought it for my baby girl, and as I was reading it to her I was bit disturbed by the second princess tactics to get rid of her sister (the first princess). I still love it though, I was cracking up reading it, if it didn't hurt me it won't hurt her ;).

[Tia Lucas · Rating 2 out of 5]

not sure how i feel about a kid trying to have her sister murdered for her own sake