The Three Princes
The Three Princes is an old Persian folk-tale about three princes who all love the same princess. She can’t really tell one from another, so the Sultan says they must perform a magical task so she can discover which of them loves her most. Who will be able to give her what her heart most desires? The story is funny and richly illustrated. Suitable for KS1 readers. Topaz Band 13.
Available from Amazon: United Kingdom • India • United Arab Emirates
Published by Collins Big Cat, 2011. ISBN 978 0 00 733627
A long time ago, and far, far away, a Sultan sent three princes off to find a truly magical object.
“The first one to bring her something magical and beautiful will be the one she will marry.”
The Three Princes was also published in Japan.
What ‘The Three Princes’ is about
The Three Princes is my retelling of a famous and much loved story from Persia, in which the father of a beautiful princess sets her followers a magical task so they can prove how much they love her, and which one she loves the best. They make many comical choices, and she gets very confused between the three of them, because they are so alike that even their mother couldn’t tell them apart. They keep swapping their identifying rings to trick her! She thinks she knows who she loves best, but when the Sultan asks her to point him out, she can’t. Oh dear, they’re so alike!
Why I wrote ‘The Three Princes’
I didn’t write the original story – it’s very ancient. This is my retelling of a traditional folk tale from the Middle East. I love folk tales from all around the world, and the ones that come from Persia and Arabia are very different from Western stories. The ‘mysterious East’, as it is sometimes called, was a place of beauty and power, great riches, priceless jewels, aromatic spices, and, above all, of wonderful stories. Cosei Cawa captures all the richness and magic of the setting of The Three Princes in the highly coloured illustrations.
Cosei Kawa is a Japanese illustrator who has rightly won many awards.
Persia is the old name for Iran.
My other retellings of classic stories
I love retelling classic stories, so you may be interested in my Classic Fairy Tales, twelve famous fairy stories. It’s published by Walker Books and illustrated by Jane Ray.
Also:
The Snow Queen, illustrated by Sian Bailey, The Nutcracker, illustrated by Ian Beck, The Oxford Book of Bible Stories – 40 favourite Old Testament stories, illustrated by Jason Cockcroft, and two Victorian stories: Our Field and Old Father Christmas, both originally written by Juliana Horatia Ewing.
For those using the book in schools, it may be useful to know that there are very useful ideas for guided reading, responding and further activities in the back pages of the book.
What is your favourite folk story? Jack and the Beanstalk? Goldilocks and the Three Bears? The Pied Piper?
Find a folk story and retell it in your own words. Don’t change what happens, but use your own words. It doesn’t matter if you forget bits – just make them up! Change the people in the story into characters that you might recognise if you meet them somewhere. Help them to speak and laugh or cry, tell jokes or ask questions. In other words – bring them to life! Then you could swap your story with a friend’s and illustrate each other’s story.