The King has many daughters, and he worries because they are all taller than he is, and they keep wearing out their shoes. What can they possibly be doing to wear them out so quickly? One cobbler figures it out and saves the day. ( )

It was cute! A different version of the Twelve Dancing Princesses plus sports. I think showing girls in sports is a good way to teach and learn about girl power. Everything is possible!! ( )

Teresa Bateman, who has drawn upon the Irish folk tradition in creating such original tales as The Ring of Truth and Fiona's Luck, here turns her attention to the classic German fairy-tale, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, offering a modern remake with rhyming text. When the king sees that his daughters' shoes are worn out every morning, he demands an answer, and many are the investigators that arrive, intent on solving the mystery. But it is only Jack the Cobbler who understands what's really going on. Can he convince the princesses to confide in their father...?

I liked the idea of The Princesses Have a Ball, and its message that girls' athleticism is in no way unfeminine - that it is something to be encouraged. Like Debbie Allen's African-American remake of this tale, Brothers of the Knight, it takes a traditional narrative and emphasizes one element, in order to tell a new story. Girls play ball here, they don't go to balls! But although I appreciated Bateman's purpose, and thought this worked as a fractured fairy-tale (I can be an exacting critic, in this respect), the text itself just didn't appeal to me. The rhymes were forced, and felt amateurish, to the point that they distracted from the story. I can see that most other reviewers really loved this one, but I'm going to have to dissent: good idea, but poor execution. I don't recommend it. ( )