Book Review: The Prince Who Was Just Himself

I'm going to knock out a couple of book reviews to start the week off. I've got one for you today and another one for tomorrow. So, bear with me because I doubt y'all come around these parts for book reviews. 

The book I'm reviewing today is called "The Prince Who Was Just Himself". It was written by Silke Schnee and illustrated by Heike Sistig. I received an advanced copy of the book through Handlebar publishing. 

When I received the teaser information for the book a month or so ago, I thought it looked interesting. The book is about a prince who doesn't look like the other princes, children, or people of his kingdom because he has Down Syndrome. I thought the idea of writing about a child with Down Syndrome was especially unique and it is important to emphasize to children that all people should be treated with love and respect regardless of whether the look or act different than we do. Although, in all honesty, I think most children already have a better grasp of this than some adults. 

I received the book last week and finally got around to reading it this past weekend. It's a short book and can be read in about 10 minutes or so. Overall, the book is okay. The illustrations are really nice and the illustrator did attempt to make the young prince look a little different than the other princes in the book. However, the story wasn't that great in my opinion. I feel like there could have been so much more written or said about the prince and his differences and how he should be accepted anyway. I think the story would have resonated so much better if it were in a different, more modern day setting with a realistic situation rather than a situation with a fictional prince. The story does get across the point of acceptance, but the story was just a little off for me. 

I think the concept of writing about children that are different than society's "normal" is a great concept and this book had a lot of potential but just didn't hit the target in my opinion. The book comes out September 1 if you are interested in checking it out. It is available from Amazon and other fine retailers.