What unfolds when a Princess from the West claims her throne in Eastern and Central Europe? Is she a colonial ruler or a feminist icon? Anna Zsubori's insightful book explores the interpretation of Disney Princesses by Hungarian tween girls, examining reception of their gender roles and racial identities within the context of Hungary's increasingly patriarchal, racially intolerant, and illiberal society. This exploration delves into the "in-betweenness" of Hungarian tweens, a concept that captures not just their transitional age but also Hungary's delicate balance between East and West.

Irena Reifová, Charles University

In this absorbing and thought-provoking text, Zsubori deftly explores the complex position that Disney Princesses inhabit within the lives of Central and Eastern European tweens. Exploring the inbetweenness of age, geography, and culture, this book offers a nuanced reading of Hungarian tweens as intelligent and critical viewers of Disney media, drawing on rich empirical data to give voice to this under-researched group. Through its interdisciplinary approach Zsubori contributes to our understanding of the limits of Western theories in non-Western contexts, and what it means to do gender-specific field work in an anti-gender environment.

Victoria Cann, University of East Anglia

The Walt Disney Company is one of the oldest and most complex global entertainment empires today, engaging with and influencing our lives in various ways regardless of age, race, gender, or geographical location. This book provides a powerful lens inviting the reader to look at Disney not only at the global, macro level, but also the micro-level: in our daily lives, around the family dinner table, in the classroom setting and elsewhere. While the focus is on the Disney Princess phenomenon, and tweens negotiating self-representation and identity in the small Central European nation of Hungary, the insights and conclusions are, in many ways, rather universal, often surprising and paradoxical. The reader will not only see the Disney Princess Franchise but the Disney Company from a more nuanced and informed perspective after reading this influential and well-researched book.

Katalin Lustyik, Ithaca College

[A] substantive input to Disney studies … Zsubori's monograph stands out precisely because it grounds long-standing critiques of Disney and consumer culture in a rich, context-sensitive account of how real tweens in illiberal Hungary make sense of Princess narratives.

Dziecinstwo: Literatura i Kultura (DLK)