The Princess Who Hated It

Princess Althea lives in a castle and travels about in a glass coach, but she hates being a princess. She is sick of doing tapestry and learning to play the flute. She is sure the farm children who live on the other side of the moat have much more fun than she does. They climb trees and get dirty, and their mother, Mrs Plum, never scolds them. When Althea is given a box of silken threads to finish her tapestry, she uses them to make a rope ladder, climbs down the tower wall to the moat, and goes to play with the farm children. One of them, Peggy Plum, is clean and tidy and behaves like a real little princess. She simply can’t understand why Althea would want to play in the mud. Althea soon realises that Peggy reminds her of somebody … herself. She and Peggy Plum could be twins. And that gives Althea a wonderful idea.
This classic story of two little girls who switch roles was first published in 1986 but has been out of print for some time. It is now re-released with new illustrations to delight a new generation of children.