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Princess Pulverizer #1: Grilled Cheese and Dragons

Disclosure: Penguin Random House sent me this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I am always looking for princess books that star a brave and strong princess. Princess Pulverizer is one such princess. She is not your typical princess. In fact she doesn't want to be a princess at all. She wants to be a knight. In the first book in this series, Grilled Cheese and Dragons by Nancy Krulik with art by Ben Balistreri, we meet Princess Serena, but don't call her that, she goes by Princess Pulverizer. 


She is not happy at Lady Frump's class at the Royal School for Ladylike Manners. She dreams of going to the knight school instead. After some begging her father agrees if she completes a quest of kindness. She needs to perform eight acts of kindness and bring back proof of each of them before he will let her go to knight school. She sets off on her quest and has problems. On her way she meets a knight-in-training named Lucas who is scared of just about everything and his dragon friend who makes the best grilled cheese sandwiches. They are a bunch of misfits but learn the first lesson on becoming a knight and help one another. 

This book is for the early grades of elementary--grades 1 to 3. It is a fairly easy read. It has lessons of working together and becoming friends throughout it. It definitely has a strong girl who needs some help in other areas like kindness and being a friend. This is not a book for a girly girl. Princess Pulverizer is not a typical girl and does not seem to draw them in. Hazel did not finish the book. It was below her reading level and she was not drawn in by the princess. However for your more tomboyish girls it would be a great book. For other strong girl princesses be sure to check out this post. We love the Princess in Black series which is an easier read than Princess Pulverizer and the Hamster Princess series which is a bit of a harder read then Princess Pulverizer.