Princess Arabella at the museum

In this colorful tale, Princess Arabella, a crowned Black girl, and her regal young friends use their imagination as they go from room to room through a museum dedicated to Arabella and her family. As they explore the surreal space together, giant spiders and pumpkins come to life, the friends pose as statues, and Princess Arabella nearly disappears inside a painting! The friends discuss the many spectacles, identifying some of their favorite paintings--many of which recall famous works--whose vibrant colors pop against the museum's white backdrop. The conversations between the friends are shared in short, clear dialogue, with emphasized lines shown in bold, cyan-colored text. Once the visit is over, the princess and her friends are inspired by the different categories of art that are encountered, such as sculptures and paintings, to create their own works. A lively picture book sure to inspire a visit to the museum and to encourage readers to create their own masterpieces.

In Freeman's latest Princess Arabella book, this young Black princess gives her royal friends a tour of her very own museum. Unlike the Louvre, Princess Arabella's museum seems to attract more children than adults, features many hands-on exhibits, and displays art that relates to the princess's family. Portraits of Princess Arabella and her mother attract the attention of her regal friends because both have blue faces. Princess Ling calls this "strange" while Prince Jonas declares it "magnificent." Princess Naomi says she recognizes Arabella as the subject of these portraits, regardless of skin color. The Worhol-esque endpapers even foreshadow this conversation, depicting Arabella with blue, red, pink, green, purple, and orange skin. And indeed, the wonderfully stylized images of Princess Arabella's unique hairdo, which Freeman creates with increasingly smaller unconnected circles that give the essence of five pigtails, make her unmistakable. Other museum exhibits include huge, colorful dotted pumpkins like Yayoi Kusama's, a giant spider that recalls Louise Bourgeois' Maman, one dog inspired by Jeff Koons and another by Keith Haring, and a portrait of her parents reminiscent of Kehinde Wiley's portraits of the Obamas. Docent Arabella, wearing her Mondrian-inspired dress, concludes the gathering with tasty treats and enjoys the children's excitement for making their own amazing artwork. Like the other Princess Arabella books, this one features a cast of multicultural characters from different, though unspecified, countries. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.3-by-16.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 57.1% of actual size.) Art appreciation from the lens of royal Black childhood--beautiful! (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.