Goldi in a fairytale frock helped me to see how the story might look through that lens and if it still worked. In the end, the bears stayed close to traditional, and Goldi’s look was more modern. The mix worked nicely to let the reader feel connected to the character, whilst the bears reminded us that this was a fairytale. I love this because for a fairytale, it has a modern message of having choices and breaking out of traditional roles. I also love that it’s about her finding her place in the world, but it turns out her place was already inside her. She’s a great character, who doesn’t give up, she just tries something different.” Peter Bently took his inspiration for The Princes and the Pea, from Hans Christian Andersen’s tale The Princess and the Pea. ‘I wanted to write a modern take on the tale that didn’t include the rather ridiculous idea that anyone, however supposedly high- maintenance and sensitive, would seriously feel a dried pea under several mattresses. At the same time, I definitely wanted to keep the most comical element in the original story – the mattresses all piling up. So I had a think and came up with the idea that the princess herself should turn the tables on the prince.”
Peter also saw opportunities to subvert other stereotypes and tropes. “Also in my sights was the assumption, found in many traditional fairytales, that every young woman would automatically jump at the chance of marrying any prince who asked. In my story, Princess Ardwenna is smart, open, and self-respecting – and obviously she barely knows Prince Fred, so she just wouldn’t. Secondly, she senses that Prince Fred is asking out of duty and tradition, not from his heart. Perhaps, in fact, his heart lies somewhere else entirely.” This opened up other opportunities for storytelling and inclusion. “It led me to the third new dimension to my version: a second prince, Zak, Fred’s best friend and inseparable companion. As far as my child audience is concerned, I realised that as well as introducing a same-sex relationship, I had three central characters who were all adults, which is also relatively unusual for a picture book. So, I sought to balance these elements by keeping the storytelling straightforward and clear, as well as (I hope) entertaining.”
Seeing different backgrounds and characteristics represented in books can be an empowering and empathy building experience, Ella describes the impact of not having this as part of her childhood reading. “Growing up, not seeing myself represented meant that I internalised a lot of negative ideas around who or what I could and couldn’t be. Writing Goldilocs was especially fun because her blackness is incidental – it’s not a story about race
Spring-Summer 2026
or racism and while those stories are so important (and are stories I have told and continue to tell) it’s also really important for young black kids to read stories that centre people who look like them just living their lives, being curious, creative and expressive.”
Rachelle was keen to foreground representation in her artwork for the book
and says: “The hope is children will see themselves in these stories and feel it’s normal, like it had always been that way. We need to normalise seeing different ethnicities in fairytales and fantasy. It’s something I didn’t see as a child. When I see it now, it makes my heart sing, but I also wish it were so normal that I didn’t notice it. For me as a child, I couldn’t imagine myself in a fairytale or imagine magical things happening to someone like me because those magical stories didn’t really feel like they were meant for me. We want all children’s imaginations to flourish and to not feel limited. I hope our book will play a small part in this mindset change.”
Rachelle Falconer.
Peter believes that children’s stories should reflect the world they are part of and that surrounds them, although “not its horrors, at least not for the age group I write for,” he says “but certainly its ordinary everyday realities, and its characters should have feelings children can recognise. (Bearing in mind that a story can be psychologically true even if set in a fantasy land with non-human characters – the Moomins, for example.) I feel that children of all backgrounds deserve to see themselves in stories, and stories are also a way to introduce the many different types of families that they will certainly encounter in everyday life.
PEN&INC. 23
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