By Laura Amy Schlitz
An overscheduled princess gets a wish granted, and a mischievous crocodile shows up to take her place for a day.
Princess Cora's days are all baths, exercise, and lessons, run by strict parents and a demanding nanny, and she is exhausted. She wishes for a pet, and instead gets a crocodile from her fairy godmother, one who offers to stand in for her so she can finally have a day off, and who then causes glorious havoc while she's gone.
This is a lovely bridge for a princess lover who's ready to leave picture books behind: it's a real little chapter book, but every page has Brian Floca's warm color pictures, so it never feels like a wall of text. Underneath the crocodile comedy is a feeling a lot of children know well, being run ragged by grown-up schedules, and the story lets Cora, and your child, laugh their way to a bit of breathing room.