We are huge fans of Julia Donaldson in our house and I'm often on the look out for more of her books to share with my daughter. As it was my youngest daughter's sixth birthday last week, I spotted a couple of this lovely author's books that we had not yet read and gave them as little birthday extras. One book was a charming looking one called The Princess and the Wizard which Natalie has really enjoyed reading especially because there I lots of glitter on every page! At the start of the book, I was a little reminded of the traditional tale, Sleeping Beauty. This I because Princess Eliza is having a lovely birthday party in the palace with her parents and ...  Read the complete review

Julia Donadson, the author of The Gruffalo is one of our favourite children's writers and we have a number of her books, including this lovely book entitled The Princess and the Wizard. It was given to my little girl as a present and although it is geared more towards girls, it is something my little boy enjoys hearing at bedtime too because their is an evil wizard as one of the main characters. It follows the same sort of storyline as most princess stories do, there is an evil wizard who locks up the princess who must then use her special powers to escape back to her loving family. The synopsis on the back of the book goes as such, "The Princess must try ...  Read the complete review

Every night we have two bedtime stories one each which they get to choose any arguments and Mummy gets to choose and this is one I pick and a firm favourite with booth my girls. Author This book is written by Julia Donaldson author of the best selling Gruffolo, Gruffolo's child and zog to name a few we own a lot of Julia Donaldson books and I was surprised to see this was by her as it is very different to her others far more girly. The Story Princess Eliza is celebrating her Birthday when the Evil Wizard appears and is angry at not being invited he turns the guests to stone but her godmother gives her seven chances to ...  Read the complete review

My daughter picked this book from the library, and she liked it so much that I bought her her own copy. She is 6 (bus was 5 when first read) and can read the story to herself, but mainly enjoys sharing it and talking about the pictures. Warning - the rest of this review contains spoilers about the story :-) The story of The Princess and the Wizard is one of those extremely satisfying children's tales that is cleverly simple. It is the princess' birthday, and she is captured from her party by a wizard. She has to try and escape him by changing her colour and her shape seven times. Each time she changes herself (e.g. into a blue fish, or a green ...  Read the complete review

The princess may try seven times to escape, by changing her colour and changing her shape.... That is the theme of this story. Princess Eliza is captured by the mean old Wizard after she doesnt invite him to her birthday party. He gives her seven chances to escape - and princess eliza tries them all before realising that he has a magic book that tells him what she has changed in to. This is a lovely story from Julia Donaldson that my three year old daughter loves. It isnt rhyming as most of Donaldsons other work is - but dont let that discourage you from this book. My daughter loves it regardless. The illustrations arent done by ...  Read the complete review