Three young princesses live a luxurious life in their palace by the sea, but they are b-o-r-e-d. One day they see three
servant girls walking by with buckets of milk, and decide that “servants have all the fun!” Eager for excitement, the princesses change places with the servants for a day, only to learn that being a servant means doing enormous amounts of labour and working all the time. They persevere, if only to prove that “princesses are not quitters,” and collapse at the end of the day. The next morning they realize with pleasure that they are eating food they actually prepared themselves the day before. They decree that henceforth all servants must have time off to rest, eat, and have fun.

This book delightfully illustrates what can happen when one walks a mile in
another person’s shoes. Despite a few awkward phrases, Lum’s lively text uses judicious repetition and vivid verbs to capture both the naive high spirits of the princesses and their increasing exhaustion as the day wears on (“they heaved themselves up and they dragged themselves out” to complete the last jobs). Sue Hellard’s hilarious pictures are filled with frenetic action and countless visual jokes: the princesses do their chores in high-heeled shoes, sweep all the dirt under the carpet, and give the sheep they shear the same exaggerated beehive hairdos that they wear themselves. The text wryly comments “Some of the jobs they couldn’t do very well.” Yes, there is a moral to this story – but it is delivered with rollicking good humour.