Not in That Dress, Princess!

In a spirited challenge to gender stereotyping, Princess Bess shows that THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN’T DO IN A DRESS!

The wacky tale of a princess who rebels against doing things that will spoil her beautiful dress. She ends up doing so many fantastic things in her dress that her brothers, the princes, want to have dresses too!


Once there was a girl called Bess
Who HATED being a princess …

… she wants to have fun and do all sorts of things, only to be told by the Queen that "a Princess must always impress … There are things we DON'T DO in a dress."

But her brothers, the princes, can get as messy as they like. Bess is not going to put up with this. She sets out to show everyone that there is NOTHING she can't do in her dress:

"I can go on a safari in my dress,
I can eat calamari in my dress,
I can brush a lion's mane
I can fly an aeroplane,
I can drive this Ferrari in my dress!"

By the end, Bess has done so many amazing things in her dress that her brothers the princes ask the Queen if they too can dress like a Princess!

"A spirited riposte to gender stereotypes pairing a funny rhyming text with energetic art."

"A very funny rhyming book showing there isn't anything that can't be done in a dress. Brilliant!"

"What a joy to see a picture book cover with an evidently brave Princess cleaning the teeth of a hippopotamus as he lazes in the water. Two Princes, with horrified expressions on their faces, watch from the riverbank. So, right from the outset, my granddaughter and I realised that this was going to be a story about a girl who does stuff."

"Full of spirit and exuding energy from cover to cover, this is the story of how a strong-minded young Princess Bess tosses aside gender stereotyping norms."

"Great to read aloud...colourful, lively illustrations fill every page and provide lots of humour and visual interest to engage the reader. This light-hearted, imaginative picture book contains an important underlying message, that gender is not a barrier to following dreams and embarking on adventures, big and small. Featuring ethnically diverse character, this inclusive tale joyfully celebrates gender equality, individuality and self-expression."

Wendy Meddour's A Hen in the Wardrobe (2012) was shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award and chosen by the Guardian as one of the 50 best culturally diverse books. She is author of the internationally successful Wendy Quill series. She lives in Devon, England.


Cindy Wume came to Britain from Taiwan in 2014 and gained an MA in Children's Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Art. She lives in Taiwan.

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