Princess Arabella series by Mylo Freeman

Princess Arabella Mixes Colors by Mylo Freeman.
Princess Arabella’s Birthday by Mylo Freeman.

Ms. Freeman in The Guardian, June, 2016:

I’m a black Dutch author and illustrator of picture books and I’d like to tell you something about my work. The idea for my main character Princess Arabella came from a story I heard about a little black girl who was offered the role of princess in a school play, which she declined, simply because she didn’t believe that a princess could be black. I decided then and there it was high time for a black princess to appear in a picture book!

Several months ago I received review copies of the two books listed above from the Princess Arabella series by Dutch author Mylo Freeman. It’s taken me a while to get around to reading the books and reviewing them, but now that I have read them, I am a fan. These books have been around for about ten years and there are ten books in the series. They are just now being translated into English and published in the United States by Cassava Republic Press.

In Princess Arabella Mixes Colors, Princess Arabella is bored with the white walls and white ceilings and white floors of her bedroom.

“I want lots and lots and LOTS of paint,” says Princess Arabella, waving her arms around. “Paint in every color of the rainbow.”

The princess’s footmen bring several pots of paint in white and black and all the primary colors. But Princess Arabella isn’t satisfied: she wants pink and and purple and orange and gray and green. So Princess Arabella begins to mix the colors to satisfy her desire for more and more colors. (If there’s a subtext here about diversity of skin colors and mixed racial heritage, the metaphor remains in the background while the story engages the reader in a color romp.)

In Princess Arabella’s Birthday, the question is: “what do you give a little princess who already has everything?” Princess Arabella asks for a very special gift, but she eventually finds that the gift itself has its own ideas about who’s in charge and what the princess’s gift should be.

Both books make a lovely additions to my library and add to the diversity and joy of the princess genre in my book selections. More Princess Arabella books available in English:

Princess Arabella Goes to School
Princess Arabella and the Giant Cake

Also by Mylo Freeman:
Hair, It’s a Family Affair: “A celebration of black hair, through the vibrant and varied hairstyles found in a single family.”

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