The Princess of Sticky Fingers

Queen Begonia has great expectations of her unborn daughter. But as soon as Anemone is born, it’s clear that she’s not like other princesses. She loves everything that’s dirty or sticky, or a bit smelly. And it only gets worse from there. Anemone refuses to wash and gives up combing her hair. Everything sticks to her face or her hands. Out of sheer desperation (and because she really stinks), the queen shuts Anemone up in the turret room. One day, knight Bertilde comes to the palace gate. She’s messy and sloppy herself, and she doesn’t like feeble princesses who smell of wildflower meadows or Fruittella.

‘The Princess of Sticky Fingers’ is a modern fairy tale full of humour and with a contemporary twist. It shows that being yourself and diverging from the future your parents have in mind for you can bring rewards. The colourful and detailed illustrations in ink, gouache and watercolours are suffused with a fairy-tale atmosphere. The dark, shadowy world of Princess Anemone contrasts beautifully with the pastel-coloured world of her mother. Some of the characters even seem to have escaped from a painting by Bosch. A story that will seem familiar to wild children and to parents who’ve had countless arguments about underwear left unwashed for a week, or hair uncombed for days on end.