Enchanting Princess Lillifee – A girls’ dream come true!

Much pink glitter and an enchanting princess – the favourite book for a new generation of girls is called “Princess Lillifee”. This book is written by Monika Finsterbusch and published by Coppenrath Verlag, Münster, Germany.

“Young girls love pink, but a rose-coloured world for children is not nearly enough for me. I want the book cover, the illustrations and the stories to fascinate children”, said Monika Finsterbusch. And she has done well with her books around “Princess Lillifee”. Not only her wonderful illustrations inspire young girls, also her stories reflect their wishes and thoughts. They are looking for friendship, love nature and animals. Story and fairy tale blend into reality, and that’s the charm of Princess Lillifee. “My creative work is channelled by my observation and intuition. When watching young girls I get a feel for what they like and what makes them happy”, said writer and illustrator Monika Finsterbusch, who is still full of new ideas for more stories.

In addition to the original Princess Lillifee book, today more wonderful stories are available on the German market: “Prinzessin Lillifee hat ein Geheimnis” (2005 – Princess Lillifee’s Secret), “Prinzessin Lillifee und die kleine Seejungfrau” (Spring 2006), “Prinzessin Lillifee und das Einhorn” (Autumn 2006), “Prinzessin Lillifee, die kleine Ballerina” (2007), “Prinzessin Lillifee und der kleine Delfin” (2008) and “Prinzessin Lillifee und das kleine Reh” (2009).

But girls also love autograph books, friendship books and advent calendar in bright pink. The publishing house is especially proud of the audio books starred by Sissi Perlinger. “What a shame, we didn’t have such cute stories when I was young!” said the famous German cabaret artist when asked about the Princess Lillifee picture books and calls the songs on the CD: “Sunny high-spirited pop music for children”. More than 400 000 copies have been sold and Princess Lillifee even won the Golden Record.

Not only Princess Lillifee’s books and audio books make it big: In March 2009 she even entered the silver screen. Will she be able to save the fairy country Rosarien together with her friends? And the little Princess also appears on TV: The WDR produced the show “Tanzen mit Prinzessin Lillifee”. Switzerland saw another Lillifee highlight: A stamp featuring Princess Lillifee – self-sticking, filigree and glittering.

Publishers from abroad also appreciate the Coppenrath books. In a little while, publishing rights have been sold into 29 foreign countries: Belgium, Danmark, Estonia, France, Greece, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Canada, Korea, Croatia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Portugal, Sweden, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, the Czech Republic, Turkey, the United States and Hungary.

“It came as a big surprise, that so many children wrote letters about Princess Lillifee shortly after she made her debut in spring 2004”, said publisher Wolfgang Hölker. “We met such an overwhelming response only once before – ten years ago, when we first published ‘Letters from Felix’.” It was soon obvious that Princess Lillifee needed her own homepage. At www.prinzessin-lillifee.de young fans find colouring pages, timetables, and sheets of writing paper to print out.

What is more, a line of cosmetic products, travel accessories, school supplies and a beauty set has been launched to wow young girls. With pearls and jewellery from Edition “Die Spiegelburg” young girls feel like princesses themselves. Glittering stickers, strass tattoos, rosy hair-bands and glittering Alice bands make the rose-coloured girl’s world perfect. In case a little princess dreams of a night in a pink four-poster bed, Coppenrath makes also this dream come true. In summer 2005 the publishing house introduced their furniture line “Princess Lillifee”, which is continuously expanded.

More special highlights: In February and March 2007 the Princess toured Germany with her wonderful stage show “Prinzessin Lillifee und der Zauber der Rose”. After sold-out shows in spring Princess Lillifee returned in autumn 2007 for her second tour. A third tour started in autumn 2009. For listening and singing-along Coppenrath released their musical CD in September 2007. In July 2006 Blue Ocean Publishing, Stuttgart launched their first “Prinzessin Lillifee” magazine; since June 2007 another magazine “Prinzessin Lillifee und das Einhorn” also inspires children. The arts and crafts magazine “Prinzessin Lillifee Bastelzauber”, the third Lillifee-branded magazine, surprises with many creative ideas, fairy colouring pages and great puzzles.

The artist behind “Princess Lillifee” is Monika Finsterbusch, born 1954 in Berlin, Germany. After her degree in Fashion&Design in Hamburg and twenty years of work as fashion designer, she opened her own little studio in Munich. To the end of the 1990ies she decided to change from fashion to toys. “After all these year of designing new collections for grown-ups, I was looking for a new challenge, a more ‘playful’ approach!” said Monika Finsterbusch. She realized a long-cherished wish and designed unusual cuddly toys full of character that inspired her to tell funny child stories. Even today her unconventional characters inspired many children and grown-ups alike – take the best-selling Moonshine Gang by Sigikid for example, with heroes like Salto Rico and Ralley Jack. This encouraged her to release her first children’s book in 2001 in cooperation with Coppenrath Publishing: “Olli und Fips”. In addition to the picture book, the hilarious little characters were also available as plush toys. “A little fairy doll, me enjoying to create fresh, loveable characters and animals and a passion about colours, patterns and fabrics – that made me create Princess Lillifee”, said Monika Finsterbusch.