Children’s Books

The Little Wooden Robot and the Log Princess

ISBN 978-0823446988
Published by Holiday House (US)
and Templar Books (UK).
(for translations, scroll down)

Order in North America:
bookshop.org
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amazon.com
other options

Order in the UK:
bookshop.org
foyles
waterstones
amazon.co.uk
gosh

For years, the king and queen tried to have a baby. Their wish was twice granted when an inventor and a witch gave them a little wooden robot and an enchanted log princess. There's just one catch, every night when the log princess sleeps, she transforms back into an ordinary log. She can only be woken with the magic words "Awake, little log, awake."

The two are inseparable until one day when the sleeping log princess is accidentally carted off to parts unknown. Now it's up to her devoted brother to find her and return her safely to the kingdom. They need to take turns to get each other home, and on the way, they face a host of adventures involving the Queen of Mushrooms, a magic pudding, a baby in a rosebush, and an old lady in a bottle.

What an astonishingly sweet book. I worried about the log princess, loved all the adventures we never saw, and cheered the family of beetles. —Neil Gaiman

A wooden masterpiece. --Lemony Snicket

Tom Gauld has created a masterful classic fairytale of a picture book that hits in all the right ways. In his inimitable style, he has squeezed royalty, robots, witches, inventors, trolls, sea-captains, forests, ghosts, and... beetles (!) into a beautiful, odd, adventurous and satisfying story. All wrapped up, of course, with the bow of sibling love. --Oliver Jeffers

There's a whole universe within these pages. Fun to read, clever, and kind. --Jillian Tamaki

Tom Gauld is one of the best storytellers working and everything he does so well is here - it is beautiful, immersive, expertly told, and breathes completely on its own. I am jealous of it. --Jon Klassen

I didn't know the world needed another fairy tale until I read this funny, beautiful, perfect book. --Carson Ellis