Retelling, set in Africa, of the German folktale recorded by Grimm brothers.

Isadora sticks very close to the original Grimm version, but she has set the story in Africa, where she lived for ten years. The illustrations are lively and colorful collages. The princesses are individualized in both looks and costumes. It sort of suggests that they have different mothers, which would make sense since they are necessarily close in age. Isadora also uses my preferred ending: the soldier marries the eldest daughter since he is no longer young.
I found it interesting that this book, and in Brothers of the Knight, written by Debbie Allen and illustrated by Kadir Nelson, a modern version set in Harlem with twelve brothers, the authors assume that the the young people enjoy dancing and the stories end with a wedding celebration full of dancing. Some versions of the story, and some adaptations, assume that the princesses are under a spell and the discovery frees them. One version has the princes being punished, presumably for having laid a spell on the princesses. ( )

I enjoyed this book a lot. I never heard of the original story, however Rachel Isadora never upsets me. I love how the princesses went off to dance. The soldier took evidence he found so he could marry one of the princesses. I thought it was also cute how when they got married, they had a dance party to celebrate. This story is very cute, I would definitely read again. ( )

Every night the twelve princesses go out and wear out their dancing shoes, but where do they go? The king has had enough and promised a reward to anyone who can find out where his daughters sneak out. One day a solider was on his way to find out how the sister got out and on his journey he met an older woman. She told him exactly what he needed to do to catch the sister in there escape. The solider does exactly what he is told and discover a secret passage way through a tunnel that leads to a lake where twelve princes are waiting in a boat to take each princesses to the other side where there are lights and music. After following the girls three nights in row the solider tells the king. As his reward he could pick any of the kings daughter to marry. He picks the eldest daughter so they got married the same day and danced the night away. ( )

The father of twelve princesses puts out a challenge to all eligible suitors - whoever can solve the mystery of why and how the princesses manage to wear out their shoes each night will meet with great reward. ( )