Simone Goder

THE MOUSE PRINCESS

The Mouse Princess (original title: Die Mausprinzessin) is a contemporary classic fairy tale about a princess who is as small as a mouse and as brave as a bear. The story begins with a royal couple, always favoured by fortune. Young, beautiful and deeply in love, they have only one more thing to wish for: a child of their own to cherish and love. But only a sliver of their portion of luck remains: just enough to gift them the tiniest of royal babies.

As years pass by, their little princess grows to the size of a mouse. The royal couple adore their little child and fulfil her every wish -- except for one. Under no circumstances is she ever allowed to leave the castle. Since she is so small and seemingly helpless, her royal parents constantly fear losing her. But soon the great castle becomes too small for a little princess. The night before her eleventh birthday, she sneaks out to explore the world she was always deprived of. There she has to face all sorts of dangers. But what she lacks in size, she makes up in being witty and kind. In a nutshell, the tale of The Mouse Princess is about overcoming your weaknesses and discovering your own strengths.

Simone Goder

SIMONE GODER is a 26-yearold illustrator living in Hamburg, Germany. She’s currently attending the Master´s programme in Illustration at HAW Hamburg. Her influences come from many different fields such as music, old movies, books, and of course everyday life. She is also inspired by artists like Beatrice Alemagna, Carson Elis and Brecht Evens. In her illustrations, she prefers to work with traditional materials like gouache, ink and watercolour. She loves experimenting with colours, structures and composition. For her stories, she strives to capture the particularity of the little things and to show the magic of fairy tales, but also of everyday life.

JURY REPORT Sheltered, as if in a cocoon of light, the long-awaited but mouse-sized heroine grows up in her parents’ castle. Clear and vigorous watercolour areas, combined with geometric patterns, support the new though classic fairy-tale plot. The contrasts between the mouse-sized heroine and her surroundings are emphasized by the almost page-busting size of the parents’ figures, the bear, and other animals she encounters in the course of her adventures.