Love the humor in the illustrations.

What's a princess to do when the king offers her hand in marriage as the prize for a jousting tournament? Don a suite of armor herself!

Violetta is the daughter of a king and sister to three brothers. The king brought up his sons to be educated on riding, jousting, fighting with swords, and table manners. He was proud of his sons and he decided to raise Violetta the same. When she was old enough, he decided to hold a tournament for her hand in marriage. Violetta is not excited for the arrangement. She believes she can beat any man in the tournament, therefore, she should be able to determine her own fate. Using the title Sir No-Name, Violetta competes, secures her own hand, and takes the prize of choosing her own fate.

Violet is incensed when her father offers her hand in marriage as the prize for a jousting tournament. Her youngest brother offers to win the tournament to save her, but she says "Thank you, but I think I'd better see to it myself." Her dad may end up regretting all that swordplay, jousting, and horsemanship training she's had. The art in this one uses interesting multi-level page layouts that remind me of something, maybe medieval tapestries? (People who know anything about art, please feel free to correct me here.) It's lovely, focused, and confident. One of our fave picture books about both princesses and knights.

This is a great story to show how girls can do things just as well as boys, just in our own way. I like how the narrative is drawn in a frieze-like style.

The king doesn’t know how to raise a girl when his daughter comes along, so he puts her in knight training with her brothers... and of course she is quick and smart and dedicated and she finds to way to win and get what she wants. This is a children’s book but even as an adult I found it very enjoyable.