Surprisingly valuable, highly recommended. It's aimed at 7-10 year-olds, but the annotations and notes are rich, the research behind the choices carefully done, the illustrations charming, the retellings graceful. A perfect antidote for Disney princesses. I love the themes of courage, cleverness, and kindness. ( )

Shirley Climo - whose other folkloric collections include Magic & Mischief: Tales from Cornwall, Monkey Business: Stories from Around the World and A Treasury of Mermaids: Mermaid Tales from Around the World - here presents seven tales from diverse cultures, all featuring princesses of one kind or another. From the opening selection, The Moon Maidens, which relates the Chinese story of White Jade and Golden Bird, the lunar daughters of the Emperor of Heaven, whose modesty is outraged by the attention and adoration of the mortals below, to Psyche, the Greco-Roman myth of the beautiful human princess who wins the love of Eros (usually Cupid), the God of Love, and is eventually made immortal herself, these tales explore the idea, presented in the author's foreword, of princesses as characters who "get what they deserve." The other five selections include:

Gulnara, from the The Arabian Nights, in which a beautiful and wise young princess rescues her two brothers, Bahman and Perviz, from an enchantment, and reunites them all with their father and mother.

Prince Ivan and the Frog Princess, a Russian fairytale in which Ivan, the youngest son of the Tsar, marries a frog, discovers she is a princess under an enchantment, and must go on a quest to rescue her, when his foolish action in burning her frog-skin returns her as a prisoner to Kostchey the Sorcerer.

Two Brides for Five Heads, a Xhosa tale from South Africa, in which two very different sisters - Mpunzikazi and Mpunzanyana - meet with very different results, as a result of their different attitudes, when they are sent as prospective brides for the chief's son.

King Thrushbeard, a classic German fairytale from The Brothers Grimm, in which the proud Princess Lina, ridiculing her many suitors, learns the value of humility, hard work, and thinking of others, when she is married off to a poor musician.

And finally, The Princess and the Music-Maker, a Mayan story from Guatemala, in which the Princess Maix runs away from her greedy father, and the profitable marriage he hopes to arrange for her, choosing to live with her love, Tepe the chirimía-player, instead.

All in all, I enjoyed the tales in A Treasury of Princesses, as well as the full-page illustrations of Ruth Sanderson - whose fairytale work in titles like The Enchanted Wood and Papa Gatto is likewise appealing - although I wish there were more than one per story. I also wished that some of the tales featured princesses who were more active, rather than being rescued (as is the case in both the Russian and Mayan examples), but leaving that aside, I would recommend this collection to all young folklore enthusiasts, particularly those with a taste for princess tales. ( )

Each of the seven princess tales in this book comes from a different country and time period. Apart from the fact that the protagonist is always the daughter of a king or chieftain, none of the stories can be united under a single theme. Several deal with marriage, others involve an archetypal trickster character, and most have a moral message about humility and perseverance. My favorite, Gulnara, comes from The Arabian Nights and tells the story of a girl whose two brothers have been turned to stone trying to get to the top of a miraculous mountain. Gulnara, the youngest of the three siblings, rescues her brothers and recovers a magical tree, fountain, and bird.

Each of the stories tries to incorporate some of the ethnic flavor of its land or origin. Most teach at least two words in the language of the people who thought it up, and all maintain unique cultural aspects which are essential to the story. For example, in the South African tale "Two Brides for Five Heads", Mpunzanyana must pound corn in a pitch-black room since the window has been covered to keep out witches.

Each story is prefaced by a page written by the editor attesting to the universal themes of the story and listing several permutations of the plot from around the world. Climo saves Psyche for last, saying that many of the most famous Western fairy tales today have borrowed from her story. Elements from the Greek myth show up in Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and Snow White, and Psyche's husband Eros eventually becomes the Cupid of Valentine's cards.

The illustrations in this compendium are few and far between, consisting of one mediocre oil painting opposite every title page. Each one dramatizes a key point in the story, but lacks a convincingly rendered style. The picture for Gulnara, especially, shows little technical expertise or even creativity in composition. Children are just going to have to use their imaginations when these stories are read to them. Recommended for age 4 through grade 2. ( )