I've been wanting to read this book for a while. I saw it at the bookstore and, after reading the back, instantly added the book to my to-read list. It took me a while to get to it, unfortunately. But, I finally did and what a treat! The book is written by the charming E.D. Baker of The Frog Princess fame. I always like a good take on the Brier Rose tale and this one was fantastic.
The story is as follows, Princess Annabelle (Annie) is gifted with a resistance to magic on her christening day. This gift forces Annie to grow up in a rather lonesome way as most people around are afraid to be near her for fearing of losing their magically bestowed beauty. But, when Annie's sister, Princess Gwen pricks her finger and brings the whole castle to an enchanted sleep, it's up to Annie to save the day. As she travels with a guard, Liam, to find the prince to break the spell, Annie meets a whole cast of familiar characters and magical folk.
I loved the premise of this book. The idea of a magic-resistant adventuress traveling through a land packed with magic was very entertaining. And I thoroughly enjoyed Baker's twist on old tales, such as Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, and the Princess and the Pea. I also really appreciated the inclusion of Snow White and Rose Red, which is, to my mind, a sadly neglected fairy tale.
I recommend this book to anyone who wants a fun romp through fairy tales. Baker's humor and masterful storytelling bring a fresh and charming take on a well known tale.
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Is it appropriate to just hop right into a review after taking a break for almost a year? Eh, sure.
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Alright, this book, in some ways, doesn't need to be reviewed; it's a mainstay in a children's literature bookshelf. However, if you're like me, then you haven't read the book for years and have vague memories of the story mixed with images from film/t.v. of varying qualities. So, to do the book justice, I reread it.
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JacketFlap tags: children's books, young adult, fairy tales, juvenile literature, kids' books, Catherine Gilbert Murdock, Princess Ben, fourstory mistake, four story mistake, Add a tag
Like many books I review, I'll read a mention of the book from some lucky bookseller who has an advanced copy. I'll get excited about the book, rush to my neighborhood bookstore or library and then realize the book doesn't come out for several months. Sigh.
Princess Ben was one of these books so I was pleasantly surprised when it arrived at my library. And promptly settled down to read it...
Princess Ben is about a young free-spirited and slightly overindulged princess, who after her doting parents are tragically murdered, is left to the devices and education of her cruel aunt. Her aunt, Queen Sophia, becomes more frantic about the quest to cultivate Princess Ben with hopes for making her marriage material when the neighboring kingdom (the chief suspect in the parents' deaths) begins to put pressure to overtake the kingdom. After one particularly bad interaction between the Queen Sophia and Princess Ben, she is shut up in a cell behind her aunt's room. However, the room holds an unexpected escape by way of a secret passageway that leads to a mysterious magical room...
Princess Ben started off with a bit of an angsty feel and, when coupled with the tragic circumstances, I steeled myself for a typical tortured heroine fairy tale. However, by the Part Two of the book, I realized that this story was far from the typical fairy tale! For start, the heroine isn't a delicate golden-haired beauty or even a feisty brunette beauty. She's a sulky, strong-willed girl with a voracious appetite. Her maturing and growth throughout the book is only one of many; it amazed me that characters that I made immediate judgments about (oh, she's the villain, he's the love interest) would change through the story as the narrator, the irrepressible Princess Ben, changed. Catherine Gilbert Murdock's clever interweaving of fairy tale references only add to the cleverness of the story rather than serve as distraction.
This story was deeper than the average "fairytale retelling" genre and delivered humor, adventure, and dare I say it, a valuable moral.
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I was so excited when I first heard about the release of The Dragonfly Pool; I completely adore Eva Ibbotson and the story sounded perfect.
And, of course, it was.
The Dragonfly Pool begins in pre-WWII London where feisty Tally has to leave her beloved doctor father, and the danger of the city, for a progressive boarding school in southern England. Despite missing home, she soon has friends and mentors that help her feel at home and she is renewed with a sense of purpose. After seeing a special on Bergania's king bravely defying Hitler, Tally is inspired to visit and when she hears of an international dance festival taking place there, she rallies her classmates to participate. Of course, things don't go as planned: there is an assassination, a prince on the lam, two hideous henchman, a rare Outer Mongolian pedestal dog, among many other things.
I think that if I could have written a novel as a child, I would have wanted to write just like Ms. Ibbotson. She has marvelous lead characters- definitely not cookie-cutter heros and heroines- some are spirited, some are shy but all are completely three-dimensional. Her villains are delightfully abhorrent and usually quite repulsive (one villain kept a picture of Hitler in a locket, another collected rare glass eyeballs). Her plots are usually outlandish and difficult to summarize (as I proved by my above paragraph) but, when reading, are easy to follow. Her books move at a perfect pace and always have just the ending one wants. The Dragonfly Pool was classic Ibbotson but classic Ibbotson with a cherry on top. It was one of those read-straight-through-the-night-until-I-finish books. Loved it.
What authors write the way you, as a child, wanted books to be written?
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I am a sucker for a good title; so when I saw Roxie and the Hooligans by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, I was absolutely constrained to read it.
Roxie Warbler looks forward to every visit from her famous explorer uncle, Uncle Dangerfoot. She sits attentively while he tells her family stories about the latest adventures that he and his employer, Lord Thistlebottom, have experienced. Roxie hangs on his every word as well as the words of Lord Thistlebottom's Book of Pitfalls and How to Survive Them. However, there is nothing in either her favorite book or her favorite uncle's stories to guide her through her bully problem at school. Helvitia's Hooligans have chosen Roxie, with her large, round ears, as their victim of the year. Roxie is embarrassed to talk to her parents about it because, as a niece of such a great adventurer, she ought to be able to figure out how to escape them. One morning, as the Hooligans try their latest bit of meanness on Roxie, she and the Hooligans end up in the dumpster. And as fate would have it, the dumpster is promptly picked up and dumped into the nearby ocean. After Roxie and Helvitia's Hooligans swim to a conveniently located desert island, the survival tips Roxie has learned come in handy as she tries to band together with the Hooligans, forage for supplies and outwit two dastardly thieves hiding out on the island with them.
This book was exhilarating! My only disappointment was that it was such a quick read because I thoroughly enjoyed it. The little survival tips were fun and watching Roxie carry them out made them even more so. I loved watching the attitudes of the Hooligans change as Roxie gradually became their fearless leader. And I liked the very gentle explanation of why the Hooligans were the way they were and Roxie's realization of how much better her life was. Above all, her refusal to panic in the face of anything was quite inspiring.
What a deliciously fun book!
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Penderwicks-lovers: don't despair as you wait for book 3! This lovely out-of-print gem will tide you over with its funny, charming and everyday slice-of-life stories.
Family Grandstand centers on the Ridgeways, Susan, George and Irene (called "Dumpling" because of her "roundness in the middle"). It's football season in Midwest City and, seeing as their father is a professor at the university and they live in a house that overlooks the football field by means of a tower, the three are very involved in the excitement of it all. From the first game of the season to homecoming, a lot else happens at the Ridgeway household including Susan learning how to deal with babysitting the Terrible Torrences, George adopting an immensely oversized dog and five very discontented turtles for his birthday, and Dumpling trying very, very hard to be very, very good after misunderstanding an overheard conversation. All this is told with Carol Ryrie Brink's brand of dry humor and gentle literary slapstick.
I have been reading Ms. Brink's books since I was little, and this one, as well as the second in the series, Family Sabbatical, are among my favorites. Her characters are completely three-dimensional and entirely identifiable. I know there are plenty of children's book readers who don't like "old-timey" books and I imagine that they would probably categorize this book in that group. But I guess I'd use the clichéd word "timeless" for this book; it's proven to be that for me!
This is the book that I think of when I think of my childhood favorites helping to shape my moral code. Thanks for writing about it!
I was glad I revisited it! Some of those old classics tend to be taken for granted. Thank you for reading.