I Am Not a Princess! follows Eliza, a young girl who dreams of being a princess. In her mind, princesses wear fancy dresses, beautiful jewels, and live happily ever after in castles, free from chores and hard work. But when Eliza dresses up as a princess and tries to join in the fun at home and in her neighborhood, she realizes that being a princess means she can’t do many of the things she loves—like riding a bike, playing baseball, helping her father paint, or baking cookies with her mom.

The story takes a different turn than I expected. Eliza ultimately decides she doesn’t want to be a princess because she feels limited by the role. However, I believe the stronger message would be that she can do anything, princess or not. It's important to show children that they don't have to conform to a particular image or expectation to enjoy life and pursue their passions.

The story has great potential, but a clearer message of empowerment—where Eliza realizes she can do everything she loves regardless of being a princess—would have been a more empowering takeaway.

A young child is pretending to be a princess, but learns she can't do things like riding bikes and baking cookies? I don't know. I guess I have never really understood this whole "princess debate" where parents are super determined to keep their child from liking princesses and stereotypical "girly" things, and I just feel like this book was an unnecessary addition to the topic. If anything, show that girls CAN be whatever they want to be - whether that's a princess, a...bike rider?....or both. That you can like wearing giant fluffy dresses AND riding a bike.

Note: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley. I was not compensated in any other fashion for the review and the opinions reflected below are entirely my own. Special thanks to the publisher and author for providing the copy.