Looking for a children’s book about defying gender roles, multifaceted identities and being your whole, wonderful self? Check out Princess Ninja!
Two years ago, my friend Topper had a brilliant idea, and went looking for an illustrator to help bring it to life. The story was based on a conversation he had with his daughter:
Her: Dad, give me two things to draw, together. Me: Uhm... doctor Tyrannosaurus. Her: I drew that already. Something else. Me: Uhm... princess ninja. Her: DAD! I said two things that are DIFFERENT! Princesses are ALREADY ninjas!
(Tumblr has a habit of butchering the image quality, but bear with me!)
Topper found himself imagining a typical royal family from a fantasy realm contending with the challenges of raising a princess who was a little different from the rest of the family, and Princess Ninja was born. He would print out copies of the text with lots of whitespace for his kids to draw the illustrations, and then eventually began to toy with the idea of turning the story into a book.
When I found out that he was running an Indiegogo fundraiser to hire an illustrator, I drew up some sketches and begged him to let me be that illustrator, because I had thoroughly fallen in love with the text. Why?
Princess Ninja is a character who finds herself in an unfortunate but not unusual position: she was born into a little patch of world that wasn't ready for her. She has an identity that isn't at all complicated from her perspective - she's a princess, she likes pink, she's silly and joyous, she loves spending time with her sisters, and she's also a ninja, and she's wild and bold and messy and skilful with a throwing star, and she wants a pet dragon, and she's basically not afraid of anything.
Her parents really just wanted and just expected a princess, and the story is partly about what happens when your family needs to do a little catching up in order to understand your identity.
Nearly everyone around her, as soon as they start really paying attention and getting to know her, can see that Princess Ninja is fantastic just as she is. Her sisters understand her and they go to bat for her, the Royal Advisor realises what's happening and makes space for her and trains and teaches her in combat and strategy games - but her parents take a really long time to get the message.
And she goes on a quest through a dark forest to find a pet dragon, encountering all sorts of fearsome creatures along the way.
And finally she meets a dragon who - well, without spoiling the whole story, Princess Ninja is not the only kid in this book who is surrounded by folks who have been imposing some unrealistic and pretty harsh standards.
I love Princess Ninja because it says something that seems really important to say to kids: you get to be big and complicated, you get to be lots of things at once. People aren't necessarily going to understand that at first; sometimes you are going to defy expectations and it's going to make people upset. And that's their problem, not yours, and in time, the people who matter are going to get on board with that. You contain multitudes, and there are a lot of different ways to be that are more than ok, that are brilliant.
Want to pick up a copy of Princess Ninja for one of the children in your life? You can find the link here.
We hope you love reading about Princess Ninja and her adventures!