{"id":175356,"date":"2026-10-02T10:24:29","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T14:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=175356"},"modified":"2026-10-02T10:24:29","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T14:24:29","slug":"the-invisible-princess-faith-ringgold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/10\/02\/the-invisible-princess-faith-ringgold\/","title":{"rendered":"On Children\u2019s Books: Faith Ringgold\u2019s <em>The Invisible Princess<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_175359\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-175359\" class=\"wp-image-175359 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0268-scaled-e1790865214432-1024x929.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"929\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0268-scaled-e1790865214432-1024x929.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0268-scaled-e1790865214432-300x272.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0268-scaled-e1790865214432-768x697.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0268-scaled-e1790865214432-1536x1393.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0268-scaled-e1790865214432.jpeg 1613w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-175359\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The author<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2019<\/span>s copy of <em>The Invisible Princess<\/em> by Faith Ringgold. Courtesy of Kenyatta Tatum Futterman.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My mom got my sister and me <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Invisible Princess<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from Target, which used to have good Black children\u2019s books. Before writing this essay, I\u2019d forgotten most of the story\u2014a children\u2019s fairy tale from 1998, written and illustrated by the artist Faith Ringgold\u2014but I could still see certain images. I remember, in particular, staring at a picture of a blind child standing in a flat field, looking up at a girl in a red dress. The first girl is Patience, the blind daughter of an evil slave master, Captain Pepper; the second is the Invisible Princess. They both have empty expressions, but Patience\u2019s mouth hangs open as she gestures up toward the spectral princess in red. I remember this arresting feeling of being able to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">see<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> her blindness. The cotton flowers around them look like molars.\u00a0<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Invisible Princess is the daughter of two slaves, Mama and Papa Love, who live on Captain Pepper\u2019s plantation. Mama and Papa Love didn\u2019t want to have a child because they feared she would be sold. But the Great Lady of Peace told them that their child would be a princess and bring peace and freedom to the plantation. After she was born, the Prince of Night\u2014a former slave who escaped a slave boat by turning day to night\u2014made her invisible to keep her safe from being a slave. Mama and Papa Love have not seen her since.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unlike in other children\u2019s books, where the evil people look scary and make mean faces, the characters\u2019 expressions in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Invisible Princess<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> don\u2019t vary much throughout the book. The most evil character, Captain Pepper, and the kindest one, the Great Lady of Peace, wear the same soft smile. The Invisible Princess looks similar to the other characters too, even though she is described as the most beautiful princess in the world. The only difference is her halo. If little kids looked at Ringgold\u2019s renderings of the characters and were asked who is good, who is bad, who is beautiful, and who is ugly, they would probably give different answers. Some might say the most beautiful character is the slave master\u2019s daughter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_175362\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-175362\" class=\"wp-image-175362 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0261-scaled-e1790865957286-1024x918.jpeg\" alt=\"The Invisible Princess by Faith Ringgold\" width=\"1024\" height=\"918\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0261-scaled-e1790865957286-1024x918.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0261-scaled-e1790865957286-300x269.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0261-scaled-e1790865957286-768x688.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0261-scaled-e1790865957286-1536x1376.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0261-scaled-e1790865957286.jpeg 1685w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-175362\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Courtesy of Kenyatta Tatum Futterman.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In our story, you learn there is a Village of Visible and an Invisible Village of Peace, Freedom, and Love. The Invisible Village is perfect. There is peace, freedom, and love. Everyone lives together in harmony. In the Village of Visible, there is slavery and pain. But for all the rigid lines the text draws between them, those worlds exist together in Ringgold\u2019s images, which are harmonic and flat. The foreground and the background blur together; the pattern of the cotton field blends into the prints of the Invisible Princess\u2019s and Patience\u2019s dresses, which blend into each other too. Ringgold\u2019s collapsed, affective paintings say what they mean, but they don\u2019t tell you what to think. The images evoke both good and evil without spelling out the distinction; that sort of knowing is felt, not revealed. Even as a kid, I understood it. It was scary.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_175363\" style=\"width: 344px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-175363\" class=\"wp-image-175363\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0267-1-scaled-e1790866033756-842x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"334\" height=\"406\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0267-1-scaled-e1790866033756-842x1024.jpeg 842w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0267-1-scaled-e1790866033756-247x300.jpeg 247w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0267-1-scaled-e1790866033756-768x934.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0267-1-scaled-e1790866033756-1264x1536.jpeg 1264w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0267-1-scaled-e1790866033756-1685x2048.jpeg 1685w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0267-1-scaled-e1790866033756.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-175363\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Courtesy of Kenyatta Tatum Futterman.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the most harmonic pictures in the book depicts the plantation. Ringgold tells us that the plantation is beautiful: \u201cAll the white people wore splendidly tailored clothes, ate fine foods, and lived in beautiful houses,\u201d she writes. But that beauty is available only to white people: \u201cThey sent their children to school while the slave children worked all day in the cotton field and were forbidden to read or write.\u201d The plantation exists because of the pain slaves endure; it is beautiful because of what makes it ugly. The contrast is inherent to the plantation, and to the eerie harmony of the painting\u2019s composition.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Just as Ringgold doesn\u2019t show us physicalized evil and pain, she doesn\u2019t show us where the slaves live. She references their broken-down shacks only in contrast to the plantation house. As a kid, I was curious about how bad the slave shacks must have been, especially knowing how beautiful and creepy the plantation was. When my parents took me to visit a plantation in New Orleans, I was less interested in seeing the masters\u2019 pretty rooms and furniture than I was in the slaves\u2019 houses. When we got to the slave quarters, I was surprised that they were empty.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_175360\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-175360\" class=\"wp-image-175360 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0264-1-scaled-e1790865088574-1024x544.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"544\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0264-1-scaled-e1790865088574-1024x544.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0264-1-scaled-e1790865088574-300x159.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0264-1-scaled-e1790865088574-768x408.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0264-1-scaled-e1790865088574.jpeg 1390w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-175360\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Courtesy of Kenyatta Tatum Futterman.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My parents also took me to the Underground Railroad museum in Cincinnati as a kid. I remember that museum viscerally because it had a simulation where you pretended to be a runaway slave. I got caught. My sister got caught too, but I remember she got a little closer to escaping north. My mistake was that I\u2019d trusted a house marked safe for slaves. She\u2019d slept in the woods. When I went home, I had nightmares about the simulation. But my parents refused to assure me that slavery would never happen again. Like Ringgold\u2019s paintings, they wouldn\u2019t give me the conclusion I needed in order to sleep.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the end of the book, everyone lives happily ever after in the Invisible Village. As an adult, it\u2019s strikingly obvious that, in order to live in harmony, they all have to kill themselves. The slaves and Patience learn that, to become invisible, they must first get stung by bees, then eat honey cakes\u2014at which point, the Prince of Night tells them: \u201cI will spread my great black cloak over the day and make it into the blackest night. And all the slaves of the Village of Visible will disappear.\u201d Only then can they break through the heavens and arrive at the Invisible Village of Peace, Freedom, and Love.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_175361\" style=\"width: 309px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-175361\" class=\"wp-image-175361\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0262-scaled-e1790865412960-831x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"The Invisible Princess by Faith Ringgold\" width=\"299\" height=\"368\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0262-scaled-e1790865412960-831x1024.jpeg 831w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0262-scaled-e1790865412960-244x300.jpeg 244w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0262-scaled-e1790865412960-768x946.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0262-scaled-e1790865412960-1247x1536.jpeg 1247w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0262-scaled-e1790865412960.jpeg 1472w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-175361\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Courtesy of Kenyatta Tatum Futterman.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After all his slaves and Patience go missing, Captain Pepper roams the empty cotton fields searching for his daughter\u2014who, Ringgold notes, is happier than she ever was in her previous life in the Village of Visible. The Great Lady of Peace finds Captain Pepper and tells him he can go to the Invisible Village too, but he will no longer be a slave master. He eats the honey cake and ascends. On the second-to-last page of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Invisible Princess<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the characters\u2019 soft smiles are slightly wider.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I went back to the Underground Railroad museum as an adult. The simulation seemed old and fake and unscary. They have a different exhibit, though. One that my parents didn\u2019t let me see when I was a kid. It is a reconstruction of a barn that held slaves before auction. It is made of the original wood. The inside is empty.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\"><i>Asha Futterman is an actor and poet. Her book<\/i>\u00a0Song of Gray<i> won the Colorado Prize for Poetry. Her poem \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/poetry\/10740\/study-of-children-asha-futterman\">Study of Children<\/a>\u201d appears in our new Fall issue. <\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Asha Futterman, whose poem \u201cStudy of Children\u201d appears in our new Fall issue, on the unsettling harmony of Faith Ringgold\u2019s 1998 fairy tale. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2718,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68717],"tags":[3618,68949,67827,68922,67,18101,34257,68707,18274,25739],"class_list":["post-175356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-childrens-books","tag-childrens-books","tag-faith-ringgold","tag-featured","tag-issue-257","tag-painting","tag-plantations","tag-quiltmaking","tag-quilts","tag-slavery","tag-the-underground-railroad"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>On Faith Ringgold\u2019s Invisible Princess by Asha Futterman<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"October 2, 2026 \u2013 The poet Asha Futterman on Faith Ringgold\u2019s 1998 children&#039;s book, The Invisible Princess.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/10\/02\/the-invisible-princess-faith-ringgold\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On Children\u2019s Books: Faith Ringgold\u2019s The Invisible Princess by Asha Futterman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"October 2, 2026 \u2013 Asha Futterman, whose poem \u201cStudy of Children\u201d appears in our new Fall issue, on the unsettling harmony of Faith Ringgold\u2019s 1998 fairy tale.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/10\/02\/the-invisible-princess-faith-ringgold\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-10-02T14:24:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0268-scaled-e1790865214432.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1613\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1463\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Asha Futterman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Asha Futterman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/10\/02\/the-invisible-princess-faith-ringgold\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/10\/02\/the-invisible-princess-faith-ringgold\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Asha Futterman\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c1b9058d216d99f8355f4eb3d8be290c\"},\"headline\":\"On Children\u2019s Books: Faith Ringgold\u2019s The Invisible Princess\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-10-02T14:24:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/10\/02\/the-invisible-princess-faith-ringgold\/\"},\"wordCount\":1207,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/10\/02\/the-invisible-princess-faith-ringgold\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0268-scaled-e1790865214432-1024x929.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"children's books\",\"Faith Ringgold\",\"Featured\",\"issue 257\",\"painting\",\"plantations\",\"quiltmaking\",\"quilts\",\"slavery\",\"the Underground Railroad\"],\"articleSection\":[\"On Children's Books\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/10\/02\/the-invisible-princess-faith-ringgold\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/10\/02\/the-invisible-princess-faith-ringgold\/\",\"name\":\"On Faith Ringgold\u2019s Invisible Princess by Asha Futterman\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/10\/02\/the-invisible-princess-faith-ringgold\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/10\/02\/the-invisible-princess-faith-ringgold\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0268-scaled-e1790865214432-1024x929.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-10-02T14:24:29+00:00\",\"description\":\"October 2, 2026 \u2013 The poet Asha Futterman on Faith Ringgold\u2019s 1998 children's book, The Invisible Princess.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/10\/02\/the-invisible-princess-faith-ringgold\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/10\/02\/the-invisible-princess-faith-ringgold\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/10\/02\/the-invisible-princess-faith-ringgold\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0268-scaled-e1790865214432.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0268-scaled-e1790865214432.jpeg\",\"width\":1613,\"height\":1463,\"caption\":\"Author's copy of The Invisible Princess by Faith Ringgold. Courtesy of Kenyatta Tatum Futterman.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/10\/02\/the-invisible-princess-faith-ringgold\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"On Children\u2019s Books: Faith Ringgold\u2019s The Invisible Princess\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c1b9058d216d99f8355f4eb3d8be290c\",\"name\":\"Asha Futterman\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2cb4b3ca9ff460a752c2c63d9bff56a569853a9ba06f69f699361b3c3bc1940f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2cb4b3ca9ff460a752c2c63d9bff56a569853a9ba06f69f699361b3c3bc1940f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Asha Futterman\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/afutterman\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"On Faith Ringgold\u2019s Invisible Princess by Asha Futterman","description":"October 2, 2026 \u2013 The poet Asha Futterman on Faith Ringgold\u2019s 1998 children's book, The Invisible Princess.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/10\/02\/the-invisible-princess-faith-ringgold\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"On Children\u2019s Books: Faith Ringgold\u2019s The Invisible Princess by Asha Futterman","og_description":"October 2, 2026 \u2013 Asha Futterman, whose poem \u201cStudy of Children\u201d appears in our new Fall issue, on the unsettling harmony of Faith Ringgold\u2019s 1998 fairy tale.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/10\/02\/the-invisible-princess-faith-ringgold\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2026-10-02T14:24:29+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1613,"height":1463,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0268-scaled-e1790865214432.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Asha Futterman","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Asha Futterman","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/10\/02\/the-invisible-princess-faith-ringgold\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/10\/02\/the-invisible-princess-faith-ringgold\/"},"author":{"name":"Asha Futterman","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c1b9058d216d99f8355f4eb3d8be290c"},"headline":"On Children\u2019s Books: Faith Ringgold\u2019s The Invisible Princess","datePublished":"2026-10-02T14:24:29+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/10\/02\/the-invisible-princess-faith-ringgold\/"},"wordCount":1207,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/10\/02\/the-invisible-princess-faith-ringgold\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0268-scaled-e1790865214432-1024x929.jpeg","keywords":["children's books","Faith Ringgold","Featured","issue 257","painting","plantations","quiltmaking","quilts","slavery","the Underground Railroad"],"articleSection":["On Children's Books"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/10\/02\/the-invisible-princess-faith-ringgold\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/10\/02\/the-invisible-princess-faith-ringgold\/","name":"On Faith Ringgold\u2019s Invisible Princess by Asha Futterman","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/10\/02\/the-invisible-princess-faith-ringgold\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/10\/02\/the-invisible-princess-faith-ringgold\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0268-scaled-e1790865214432-1024x929.jpeg","datePublished":"2026-10-02T14:24:29+00:00","description":"October 2, 2026 \u2013 The poet Asha Futterman on Faith Ringgold\u2019s 1998 children's book, The Invisible Princess.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/10\/02\/the-invisible-princess-faith-ringgold\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/10\/02\/the-invisible-princess-faith-ringgold\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/10\/02\/the-invisible-princess-faith-ringgold\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0268-scaled-e1790865214432.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-0268-scaled-e1790865214432.jpeg","width":1613,"height":1463,"caption":"Author's copy of The Invisible Princess by Faith Ringgold. Courtesy of Kenyatta Tatum Futterman."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/10\/02\/the-invisible-princess-faith-ringgold\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"On Children\u2019s Books: Faith Ringgold\u2019s The Invisible Princess"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c1b9058d216d99f8355f4eb3d8be290c","name":"Asha Futterman","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2cb4b3ca9ff460a752c2c63d9bff56a569853a9ba06f69f699361b3c3bc1940f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2cb4b3ca9ff460a752c2c63d9bff56a569853a9ba06f69f699361b3c3bc1940f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Asha Futterman"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/afutterman\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2718"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175356"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":175450,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175356\/revisions\/175450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}