What do you think?
Rate this book
Waking Beauty
Everyone knows Sleeping Beauty has to be woken with a kiss, except Prince Charming. Every time the fairies watching over her try to tell him, he interrupts with his ideas of how to wake her. Eventually he gets the message, and his reaction is ?One hundred years of morning breath Wow! That could be the kiss of death !? With just as much interactive fun as Falling for Rapunzel (an IRA Notable Book and the winner of Maryland?s Black-Eyed Susan Picture Book Award), this fractured fairy tale will elicit laughter that no one will be able to sleep through.
32 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2008
7 people are currently reading
359 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 197 reviews
October 8, 2008
Despite the appearance of Prince Charming in this book, I didn’t find this book quite as charming as the book Falling for Rapunzel, which is also by the same writer and illustrator.
However, it is a fun book for both children and adults, and it’s a terrific read aloud book.
I hope that this team creates a third and many more fairy tale spoof books. They’re really delightful. I do recommend Waking Beauty and very highly recommend Falling for Rapunzel.
However, it is a fun book for both children and adults, and it’s a terrific read aloud book.
I hope that this team creates a third and many more fairy tale spoof books. They’re really delightful. I do recommend Waking Beauty and very highly recommend Falling for Rapunzel.
February 1, 2015
I'm always in search of children's books to read to my 3 year old that don't bore me to tears. I have grown tired of the pile of crappy children's books on my kid's shelves that seem to recycle the same thing over and over again. Of course, there are the old classics from my childhood but my children don't seem to latch on to them like I did.
For my daughters, princesses and all things girly is the key but I get a bit annoyed with the silly fairytales and blubbery princess stories that depict weak, helpless females. I'm not a feminazi by any means but I want to raise my daughters to be strong, independent women with minds of their own, not a sideline to a heroic prince.
What I love about this hilarious rhyming take on Sleeping Beauty is that it twists the whole idea of a helpless princess just right. It's clever and funny enough that even I chuckled several times. As I've mentioned in other reviews, I enjoy reading books to my children that rhyme. I delight in the way the words sound coming off my tongue and appreciate the lyrical playfulness of them. I think my kids feel the same way, but then again I've never asked.
This book was a lucky find at the public library and one that I think I may actually buy if I can find it. My daughter thoroughly enjoyed it and if I'm telling the truth, so did I.
For my daughters, princesses and all things girly is the key but I get a bit annoyed with the silly fairytales and blubbery princess stories that depict weak, helpless females. I'm not a feminazi by any means but I want to raise my daughters to be strong, independent women with minds of their own, not a sideline to a heroic prince.
What I love about this hilarious rhyming take on Sleeping Beauty is that it twists the whole idea of a helpless princess just right. It's clever and funny enough that even I chuckled several times. As I've mentioned in other reviews, I enjoy reading books to my children that rhyme. I delight in the way the words sound coming off my tongue and appreciate the lyrical playfulness of them. I think my kids feel the same way, but then again I've never asked.
This book was a lucky find at the public library and one that I think I may actually buy if I can find it. My daughter thoroughly enjoyed it and if I'm telling the truth, so did I.
March 26, 2008
Waking Beauty by Leah Wilcox and illustrated by Lydia Monks is a funny read aloud for children of all ages. In this entertaining retelling of the classic fairy tale, Prince Charming goes in search of a dragon to slay, instead, he finds the snoring beauty. Fairies attempt, many times, to tell the Prince what he must do to wake Sleeping Beauty, but he is too impatient to listen. He tries many different ways to wake Sleeping Beauty up, shouting, jumping on her bed, and dumping water on her head to name a few, without success. He finally realizes what the fairies have been trying to tell him throughout the story and Prince Charming wakes her with a kiss, even though he had heard girls have germs. Unfortunately, for him, he did not ask the sleeping beauty for a kiss.
Rhyming text and fun illustrations make the book a great read aloud for boys and girls alike. Children and children at heart will ask for this story again and again.
Rhyming text and fun illustrations make the book a great read aloud for boys and girls alike. Children and children at heart will ask for this story again and again.
September 17, 2012
Wow, how refreshing, a totally worthy follow-up to Falling for Rapunzel! Same great fill-in-the-blank page turns and goofy collage illustrations. And love, love, love that Sleeping Beauty asserts herself after the Prince takes a kiss without permission.
September 4, 2021
A hilarious take on the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. We'll be buying this one!
February 21, 2008
See the bright pink cover? What you can't see is the glitter on the title too. Looks like quite a book for little girls, doesn't it? But I am here to tell you that this is one version of Sleeping Beauty that will have the little boys clamoring for another reading!
When Prince Charming approaches the castle covered in vines, he hears a horrible noise that he thinks is a dragon. He draws his sword, prepared to do battle, but to his dismay finds a snoring princess fast asleep. Three fairies appear and offer advice to the prince, but he refuses to listen. He tries many ways to get Beauty to wake up. He shouts, jumps on the bed, dumps water on her, and finally resorts to firing her out of a cannon. But nothing will wake Beauty up except a kiss, which is something that completely terrifies the brave prince. Will he be willing to wake her?
A great rhyming story, you will get delighted responses from both boys and girls to this story as they realize it is a real twist on the traditional tale. The rhymes add to the jolly nature of the story and the pure fun of the twists. Monks artwork is beautiful, graceful and lovely, but doesn't shy away from the slapstick nature of the book either. The art offers a bridge between the beauty of the traditional tale and the silliness of this version.
Highly recommended for 4-7 year olds, especially as a final book in a story time. I always guaranteed good laughs in my final book at a preschool story time. This one is a perfect candidate and definitely guarantees giggles.
When Prince Charming approaches the castle covered in vines, he hears a horrible noise that he thinks is a dragon. He draws his sword, prepared to do battle, but to his dismay finds a snoring princess fast asleep. Three fairies appear and offer advice to the prince, but he refuses to listen. He tries many ways to get Beauty to wake up. He shouts, jumps on the bed, dumps water on her, and finally resorts to firing her out of a cannon. But nothing will wake Beauty up except a kiss, which is something that completely terrifies the brave prince. Will he be willing to wake her?
A great rhyming story, you will get delighted responses from both boys and girls to this story as they realize it is a real twist on the traditional tale. The rhymes add to the jolly nature of the story and the pure fun of the twists. Monks artwork is beautiful, graceful and lovely, but doesn't shy away from the slapstick nature of the book either. The art offers a bridge between the beauty of the traditional tale and the silliness of this version.
Highly recommended for 4-7 year olds, especially as a final book in a story time. I always guaranteed good laughs in my final book at a preschool story time. This one is a perfect candidate and definitely guarantees giggles.
February 5, 2017
This is a fractured fairy tale of the classic Sleeping Beauty. It's a cute and humorous story of a snoring princess who is found by the prince who is looking for dragons to slay. The fairies try to convince him to kiss the snoring princess and break the spell of slumber but the prince doesn't get it. They tell him to give her a little lip and he tells the princess to "Wake up, lazy bones." He doesn't realize they mean he should kiss her. He tries jumping on the bed to wake her and dumps a pitcher of water on her but still she doesn't wake up. He even tries putting her in a cannon and she winds up falling into a moat. Finally, the fairies are able to help him understand that he must kiss her and he says "One hundred years of morning breath could be the kiss of death!" He worries she may have germs because she's a girl. He does go ahead and kiss her and she wakes up and punches him and knocks him out. Then she has to kiss him to wake him up!
Children will enjoy this humorous, fun-filled version of Sleeping Beauty with all its twists and turns from the original.
Children will enjoy this humorous, fun-filled version of Sleeping Beauty with all its twists and turns from the original.
April 28, 2011
My 6 year old and I absolutely fell in love with this book! We read it aloud to my husband tonight and got a few chuckles out of him as well! I plan to read it to both buy it for my school library and read it to the Kindergarten classes during their Kings and Queens unit.
Waking Beauty is a hilarious retelling of Sleeping Beauty in which Prince Charming just does not get the fact that he must KISS the princess to wake her up. He tries everything he can EXCEPT kissing her to wake her and when he finally does, he gets a not so pleasant surprise: "she popped Prince Charming with her fist!"
I also fell in love with the illustrations in this book. The illustrator adds texture by using actual photographs of foliage, fabrics, etc. into the drawings. The facial expressions of the characters are just as captivating as the rhyming text which will appeal to children of all ages.
This one will be in heavy rotation as a bedtime story for a while, I know!
Waking Beauty is a hilarious retelling of Sleeping Beauty in which Prince Charming just does not get the fact that he must KISS the princess to wake her up. He tries everything he can EXCEPT kissing her to wake her and when he finally does, he gets a not so pleasant surprise: "she popped Prince Charming with her fist!"
I also fell in love with the illustrations in this book. The illustrator adds texture by using actual photographs of foliage, fabrics, etc. into the drawings. The facial expressions of the characters are just as captivating as the rhyming text which will appeal to children of all ages.
This one will be in heavy rotation as a bedtime story for a while, I know!
February 27, 2008
The art work kind of goes between cute and weird. The Prince looks sort of like an oddly shaped wooden spoon with Dennis the Menace's hair and some odd blob of pink plastic slapped on for a nose.
The rhymes work well. Kids who have this read to them will be filling in that line the Prince never seems to get and the boys will like his views on "girl germs". And despite the glitter and sparkles, the princess in this fractured fairy tale is no Disney cartoon princess--she's got a wicked left hook!
Not for the toddler set, but older preschoolers and school age kids will love this new take on an old favorite.
The rhymes work well. Kids who have this read to them will be filling in that line the Prince never seems to get and the boys will like his views on "girl germs". And despite the glitter and sparkles, the princess in this fractured fairy tale is no Disney cartoon princess--she's got a wicked left hook!
Not for the toddler set, but older preschoolers and school age kids will love this new take on an old favorite.
January 22, 2014
It is very entertaining in how the cliches of kissing to wake maidens, and clueless a boy is put into the same plot. The illustrations are fun; the clothes are cut out of real cloth and lace. And the girl isn't a pushover in the end.
March 29, 2019
This story is clever, witty and fun to read. It's rolicking rhymes match the action packed story even the boys, enjoy this book!
June 18, 2018
children's picture book (grades 1st-3rd)
I liked this when I originally read it several years ago (slapstick comedy! a rhyming scheme! lots of unique vocabulary words!), but now when I read it I am much more sensitive to the issues of consent (the princess does deliver a knock-out punch to the face to the prince when she wakes up, "Who said you could have a kiss?")--I made a note to the kids that you NEED TO ASK FIRST, but the whole sleeping beauty concept has been spoiled for me.
I recommend instead: Leah Wilcox's Falling for Rapunzel, which is another twisted fairytale with a (thankfully) totally conscious princess.
I liked this when I originally read it several years ago (slapstick comedy! a rhyming scheme! lots of unique vocabulary words!), but now when I read it I am much more sensitive to the issues of consent (the princess does deliver a knock-out punch to the face to the prince when she wakes up, "Who said you could have a kiss?")--I made a note to the kids that you NEED TO ASK FIRST, but the whole sleeping beauty concept has been spoiled for me.
I recommend instead: Leah Wilcox's Falling for Rapunzel, which is another twisted fairytale with a (thankfully) totally conscious princess.
September 9, 2018
Prince Charming seems to be unaware of his assignment, as he did not know that in order to wake Sleeping Beauty, he must kiss her. He tries everything from splashing her with water, to shooting her out of a cannon! Finally, he gives in and listens to the fairies. Once he wakes her, Sleeping Beauty repays the favor by knocking him out with a punch. The tables turn, and then she must give him a kiss in order to wake him up. This cute story uses fun illustrations, rhythm, and rhyme to tell the story of Sleeping Beauty.
June 29, 2017
By turns funny and disturbing, this retelling of Sleeping Beauty is full of rhymes and ways to explain consent to young ones. For example, we don't shoot people out of cannons without their explicit approval, which they cannot give when they are sleeping. The ending would have sat better with me, too, had it simply stopped after the princess .
Read
September 27, 2019Traditional Literature
This is sort of a twist from the traditional story of sleeping beauty. Almost everyone knows that sleeping beauty must be woken by a kiss, except for this prince. The fairies try to tell him but just before they say "kiss" he interrupts them and tries one of his own terrible ideas. Finally he kisses her and when the princess wakes up she punched the prince in the face and he falls asleep. The princess has to now wake him with a kiss.
This is sort of a twist from the traditional story of sleeping beauty. Almost everyone knows that sleeping beauty must be woken by a kiss, except for this prince. The fairies try to tell him but just before they say "kiss" he interrupts them and tries one of his own terrible ideas. Finally he kisses her and when the princess wakes up she punched the prince in the face and he falls asleep. The princess has to now wake him with a kiss.
Read
October 15, 2019This is a spinoff of Sleeping Beauty. The fairies try to convince the prince he needs to kiss Sleeping Beauty but he just isn't figuring that out, eventually, he does and falls asleep. After waking up, Sleeping Beauty tries to wake the prince, but the fairies tell the princess to let him sleep but she doesn't and kisses him again.
November 23, 2020
I absolutely loved this story on how Prince Charming tried to wake Sleeping Beauty up. Every way he tried was deemed unromantic by the fairies that were next to Sleeping Beauties side. He finally succeeded in waking up the princess and was knocked out cold because she didn't ask for a kiss. Such a cute story!
October 15, 2018
In this story, Prince Charming tries many different ways to wake Sleeping Beauty, because he doesn't know a kiss will do it. The Fairy Godmothers clue him in and when he kisses the princess, she hits him in the face.
December 15, 2018
I think I like Falling for Rapunzel a bit better (since the whole "Sleeping Beauty" story itself just gives me creepy vibes--like, force a kiss on a sleeping stranger? *shudder*). But I think it's hilarious when the Prince tries all sorts of practical and absurd things to wake her up instead!
October 1, 2019
This book is not the traditional fairy tale story. This book is about a prince who is so unromantic and doesn't know how to wake sleeping beauty. He does all these crazy things to try to wake her up until he finally kisses her in the end.
December 21, 2021
A twisted, fractured, rhyming tale of what Prince Charming must do to wake Sleeping Beauty. Sounds like a simple enough task, but not when our hapless, unromantic hero doesn't have a clue of what to do. Silly read out loud fun!
January 1, 2022
Updated storyline! My local children's librarian recommended this book for me when I was doing Mystery Reader for my grandson's 3rd grade class! (Not an easy task when finding a picture book for this age group!) They really enjoyed the book, and it got some laughs!!
February 27, 2017
Hilarious! This story is laugh out loud funny! A great book to entertain!
May 20, 2017
A hit with my toddler! She loved calling out "kiss" in the appropriate spots given the rhyming couplets.
May 23, 2017
A clueless prince stumbles across Sleeping Beauty, and even with the help of three fairies has a difficult time figuring out how to wake her up.
Illustrations are colorful and whimsical.
Illustrations are colorful and whimsical.
August 10, 2017
This was okay. I liked Falling for Rapunzel better.
August 11, 2017
A prince stumbles upon a sleeping princess but can't figure out how to wake her. Cute preschool and up for humor
November 25, 2017
Adorable fractured fairy tale complete with an absolutely clueless "Prince Charming". Guaranteed laughs!
July 11, 2018
Still fun, but I liked Falling for Rapunzel better.
January 18, 2019
Hilarious retelling of Sleeping Beauty. Colorful illustrations. Told in rhyming couplets. Could use to teach the importance of listening.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 197 reviews