The Penguin and the Pea

Britta Santowski is a freelance writer in Victoria.

This retelling of the original Princess and the Pea story by Hans
Christian Andersen replaces the human princess with a frumpy penguin
princess. The storyline is basically the same. Royal parents set out to
find a perfect partner for their son. A less-than-perfect princess
appears. Doubting her authenticity, the mother requires her to sleep on
a pile of mattresses underneath which is a lone pea. The princess wakes
from a troubled sleep, tired, stiff, and sore because her incredibly
delicate body was painfully disturbed by the pea. This proves her
authenticity. She marries the prince and lives happily ever after.

However, Perlman’s story includes two slight variations. First, the
penguin princess stays for two nights, not just one (the first night a
cabbage is placed under the thin mattress she sleeps on, and the next
night she is subjected to a pea placed under 20 mattresses). Second, the
princess gets her bruises from tumbling out of the very uncomfortable
bed, not from sleeping on the pea.

The big, bright, and colourful cartoonlike drawings accompanying the
story are a delight. Wigs, headpieces, and clothing are used to indicate
gender and status, and the penguins are humorously depicted (imagine a
distraught, bottom-heavy penguin princess lying on a lumpy bed, with her
legs flailing and bottom jutting up, unable to sleep).

Despite the clever substitution of penguins for humans, however, the
tiresome theme of pitting woman against woman remains: the original
Barbie-like princess may be gone, but the suspicious mother who thinks
that no woman can ever replace her remains. Recommended with
reservations.