Princess Cora is sick of boring lessons.

She’s sick of running in circles around the dungeon gym. She’s sick, sick, sick of taking three baths a day. And her parents won’t let her have a dog. But when she writes to her fairy godmother for help, she doesn’t expect it to come in the form of a crocodile — a crocodile who does not behave properly.

With perfectly paced dry comedy, children’s book luminaries Laura Amy Schlitz and Brian Floca send Princess Cora on a delightful outdoor adventure — climbing trees! getting dirty! having fun! — while her alter ego wreaks utter havoc inside the castle, obliging one pair of royal helicopter parents to reconsider their ways.

• An overscheduled princess longs for a day off with comic results 
• The paperback edition of this gorgeous storybook from a Newbery Medalist and a Caldecott Medalist (royalty themselves) is slightly reduced in size and in full color 
• A crocodile sent by a fairy godmother can be a divine alter ego, especially when he bites the royal nanny