Prince and Knight
“And in a flash, to each it felt there simply was no other”
“Prince and Knight,” by Daniel Haak is a story that affirms the love between two people and advocates for us all to love each other.
This is a fairytale story you might not have heard before, but you should. The Prince needs a partner, but is not interested in any of the lovely princesses who swoon over him. Amidst his quest for a wife, he must go and fight a dragon - obviously.
While fighting the dragon, he teams up with a mysterious knight who happens to also be his "knight in shining armor.” Spoiler alert: they fall in love, get married, and live happily ever after.
The overall message of this charming book is that fighting dragons is scary, but marrying the person you love shouldn’t be.
This a refreshing fairytale, but certainly just that compared to some coming out stories. Because homosexuality is often represented as different from the suggested norm of heterosexuality - the narrative more widely projected, celebrated and accepted - many coming out experiences are more like horror stories.
The author nods to this with language about the prince. For example, he says the prince “sings a different tune,” and was “looking for something different.” One on hand, using the word “different” recognizes how the love stories of the LGBTQ+ community has been marginalized, but it also contributes to further “othering” this group.
The problem with a lack of representation is that any story about a marginalized group is held to higher standards and expected to be perfect. “Prince and Knight” is not perfect, but it is wonderful and necessary.
We hope that with more stories like “Prince and Knight” the conversation can shift in a way that we are all so well represented that othering is harder and harder to come by and more dynamic stories can be shared. That would be the best fairytale ending.
Some Things to Think About…
Is love at first sight real?
How do we know what love is?
If we are all equal, should every person be loved the same way?
Activity Idea: Think of all the different kinds of love that exist. Love for family? Love for a food? Love for yourself? Label them, draw them, and talk about them with your family.
illustrated by Stevie Lewis
