I love this story because it reminds me of the sacrificial death of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fact that Christ came to save us from our sins.  It is a must-read to children to teach them about sacrificial love and how God transforms us to repent of our sins. There are many ways to introduce children to the story: beautiful illustrated editions, graphic novel adaptions, audio recordings, a musical version, and even LOL doll spin-offs. Links to many of those can be found below.

Wikipedia summarizes the story as follows:

A king and queen, after some time, have a daughter. The king invites everyone to the christening, except his sister Princess Makemnoit, a spiteful and sour woman. She arrives without an invitation and curses the princess to have no gravity. Whenever the princess accidentally moves up in the air, she has to be brought down, and the wind is capable of carrying her off. As she grows, she never cries, and never can be brought to see the serious side of anything. The court philosophers, when consulted, are unable to propose any cure that the king and queen will suffer to be used.

She passionately loves swimming, and when she swims, she regains her gravity. This leads to the proposal that if she could be brought to cry, it might break the curse. But nothing can make her cry.

A prince from another country sets out to find a wife but finds fault in every princess he finds. He had not intended to seek out the light princess, but, upon becoming lost in a forest, he finds the princess swimming. Thinking she is drowning, he rescues her, ending up with her in the air, with her scolding him. He falls instantly in love and, upon her demand, puts her back in the water, and goes swimming with her. Days pass and the prince learns that her manner is changed between the water and the land, and he can not marry her as she is on land.

Princess Makemnoit, meanwhile, discovers that the Princess loves the lake so she sets out to dry it up. The water is drained from the lake, the springs are stopped up, and the rain ceases. Even babies no longer cry water.

As the lake dries up, it is discovered that the only way to stop it is to block the hole the water is flowing from, and the only thing that will block it is a living man, who would die in the deed. The prince volunteers, on the condition that the princess keeps him company while the lake fills. The lake fills up. When the prince has almost drowned, the princess frantically drags his body from the lake to take it to her old nurse, who is a wise woman. They tend him through the night, and he wakes at dawn. The princess falls to the floor and cries.

The prince desired to travel overland with the Princess so she could find her feet. After the princess masters the art of walking, she marries the prince. Princess Makemnoit's house is undermined by the waters and falls in, drowning her. The Light Princess and her Prince had many children together.

This story teaches young boys a Biblical principle of sacrificial love to prepare them for marriage.  “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” (Ephesians 5:25).  It also teaches young girls that this is the type of love they need to find in a husband, and to not settle for anything less.

 My favorite quote from the book is from the first sentence in chapter 15, as the curse of sin is broken:

“The princess burst into a passion of tears and fell on the floor.  There she lay for an hour, and her tears never ceased.  All the pent-up crying of her life was spent now.  And a rain came on, such as had never been seen in that country.  The sun shone all the time, and the great drops, which fell straight to the earth, shone likewise.  The palace was in the heart of a rainbow.” 

The scene teaches young girls to have empathy and compassion, and reminds me of Isaiah 60:20 describing how our days of sorrow because of sin will end in Heaven when we are with our Bridegroom Jesus: “Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end.” 

During the stay-at-home order in my city due to the Corona Virus pandemic I got The Light Princess for my daughter, who was showing interest in becoming an avid reader.  I ordered the Light Princess with illustrations by Ned Bustard for $16. A review of this edition can be found here.

A illustrated paperback edition is available from this website for $9.95 here.

 In Victorian Mythmaker, Dr. Rolland Hein writes, “MacDonald had strong opinions concerning the process of education, and he practiced them on his children.  He found considerable wisdom in the writings of Sir Francis Bacon, and among Bacon’s remarks he was fond of quoting was, ‘Wonder is the seed of knowledge.’  The successful teacher should awaken within his pupils a curiosity and desire to know and must not try to impose materials on them until that desire is present.  When the desire to learn a thing is so strong that students ask to be taught, the teacher should then lead them to discover it for themselves.”

My eight-year-old daughter, an advanced reader, read the book independently and silently.  I have twins, and my other twin is not as advanced and was in second grade at the time.  She had difficulty reading the book out loud, so I decided to wait until she is older.  This book is recommended for grades 3 to 7, reading level 9-12 years old on Amazon.com.  Even if a child does not quite understand the story, reading to children is a crucial element in their language development.  The more you read to your child the greater vocabulary they will have.  A parent can always re-read the story even many times after many years of development until the child pays attention and understands the story. Children learn best by repetition.

The Light Princess graphic novel from Cave Press Publishing is available as a comic book for $14.95 here.

An audio recording of the Light Princess is available from Librivox. 

My 8-year-old twin girls absolutely love YouTube videos with LOL dolls, and little girls may love to watch it too.  Here is a link to you tube where the LOL dolls play the Light Princess: you tube Light Princess

 This you tube video of the song “Darkest Hour” from the Light Princess may be more appropriate for older teens.