Greg Pak & Jonathan Coulton Reunite For The Princess Who Saved Her Friends

Back in 2015, Greg Pak wrote a children’s book called The Princess Who Saved Herself based on a song by Jonathan Coulton. This super fun and positive book, illustrated by Takeshi Miyazawa, colored by Jessica Kholinne, and lettered by Simon Bowland, followed a princess named Gloria Cheng Epstein Takahara de la Garza Champion who lived with her pet snake and played rock ‘n’ roll all day. Pak got the group together again for a sequel, currently on Kickstarter called The Princess Who Saved Her Friends.

The original book was full of empowerment as this scrappy kid stuck up for herself against the classic guitarist witch who lived down the road. Pak describes it in his newsletter as a “story of determination, bravery, and understanding.” The sequel picks up with our heroine learning that the witch she befriended might not be such a great friend after all. It aims to tackle the tricky personal conflict that kids and adults grapple with every day in the real world.
As with the last book, The Princess Who Saved Her Friends is a hybrid comic / children’s book. There are captions and word balloons. This, coupled with Miyazawa’s incredible artwork makes for a really fun read.
My kids absolutely love The Princess Who Saved Herself.  I’ve read the book a couple times at their day care center during “mystery reader” week and it’s always a big hit. So, of course, I backed this Kickstarter campaign as soon as I saw it. At the time of this writing, Pak is 83% of the way to the funding goal with four weeks left to go, so it’s a safe bet that this is happening.