The Princess in Black Takes a Holiday is the fourth book in ‘The Princess in Black’ series by husband and wife team, Shannon and Dean Hale. Princess Magnolia is a secret monster fighting princess. When Monsters arrive from Monster Land the princess dons her disguise, slides down her chute and climbs aboard Blacky and sets off to send the monsters back home.

This week alone she has fought off fourteen monsters and is extremely tired. Just as she is about to lie down the monster alarm goes off again. A monster is trying to eat her friend Duff’s Goats. Being so tired she was finding it hard to stop the monster. Suddenly another masked hero turned up to help ‘The Goat Avenger’. Together they stopped the monster.

The Goat Avenger told the princess she needed a holiday and that he would take care of any monsters that arrived. So, off she went to the beach. However, she wasn’t there long when she heard a ‘ROAR’ a big sea monster was causing havoc. There was only one thing for it – It was a good job she brought her suit and mask with her.

This is the first book in the series that I have read, in fact, it was the first time I had heard of the series. The book is a children’s chapter book, introducing larger chapter books to new readers. The letters are written in large font and there are no hard words to decipher.

Throughout are colourful, bold illustrations by artist LeUyen Pham. These add so much to the story and make the book come to life. Nearly every page has at least one illustration. The book is also split into short chapters, of which there are thirteen of them.

This is a fun, exciting adventure book that is perfect for new readers and goes to show that anyone can be a hero!