Title: Christmas Peas and Princesses: A Story of Love and Dreams
Author: Terry Boucher
Publisher: PageTurner, Press and Media
ISBN: 1643766872
Genre: Children’s Fiction
Pages: 58
Reviewed by: Barbara Scott
Pacific Book Review
Writer Terry Boucher has created an enhanced and enchanting version of the folk tale first put in print by Hans Christian Andersen – the story of the princess and the pea.
In Boucher’s tale, King Matthew is a fair-minded modest monarch, while his wife Queen Victoria is a planner who has a strong notion of the kind of lady their son, Prince Kevin, should marry. Having heard the legend of identifying a princess as someone too sensitive to sleep if even so small an annoyance as a pea is placed under her mattress, Victoria resolves to use this test when the mayor’s daughter Dorothy comes for Christmas Eve celebrations at the palace. But two nights before this test is to be carried out, Kevin encounters a lovely blue-eyed girl, Taryn, whose carriage has gotten stuck in the snow, and invites her and her brother to the palace to spend the night. The prince and his pretty guest seem to have much in common. The queen decides that Taryn, though from a simple upbringing, should also be tested, and has the butler place a pea under her mattress. Taryn tosses and turns all night, unable to sleep, remembering the stresses of the day. But when asked about how she passed the night, Taryn, not wishing to be rude, reports that everything was fine. Kevin likes Taryn, but she has not passed the test. But when Dorothy, with whom Kevin seems to have little in common, dutifully reports a dreadful experience in her palace bed, what is Kevin to do?
Boucher is a practiced writer who has developed a love of fairy tales in raising two daughters. He is also intently involved in faith formation and moral theology, qualities that imbue his story with higher purpose, as when Kevin and Taryn read together the biblical story of Mary and Joseph’s search for shelter on the eve of the birth of Jesus. There are hymns sung, prayers prayed and Christmas mass attended in this glowing parable, in which honesty and pure love are shown as crucial factors in its happy ending. The illustrations are large, colorful and offer gentle support to the story. The book, geared to older children who would be able to read and enjoy it on their own, would also make a fine read-to for younger ones. Boucher’s enlivened look at an old fable offers a strong, straightforward plot line, lessons to be learned, and reminders of the meaning of Christmas appropriate for that season.
