When I was younger I loved to read. I was part of the Battle of the Books team for my school in 4th and 6th grade and every new book was a treasure. Of course toward the end of middle school and beginning of high school I went through that phase everyone goes through of despising books. They were just a means for answering questions in school, just words to be ceaselessly analyzed. The way I got back into books was finding one of my Battle of the Books reading list. I was immediately filled with the warmth and happiness that those books brought me and after rereading one or two I started reading more and more again.
All this to say that books in the children's section are where it's at. I never go to a book store without browsing the children's section and usually picking up a Newberry award winner or two.
Princess Academy is one of those books that makes me excited to read again. It's a quick, fascinating, and honest story. The book was made to capture and hold the attention of young readers ( it captured my attention as well ) but it trades none of its literary prowess. The story is about a young girl who lives in a small secluded village that has been chosen as the birthplace of the new princess. All the girls in the village must go to a princess academy to get ready for a ball in which they will meet the prince and he will choose his bride. When written like that it almost seems boring but with a slight fantastical element of quarry speech, bandits and the struggle between wealth and the happiness of home it is anything but.
The ending was also a surprise, (unlike a teen fiction book I am in the middle of but I already know the ending to, but I'll get to that in a couple posts) and it reminds me of one of my absolute favorite children's book Sahara Special which is also about a girl finding a way to belong.
A quick, happy and marvelous read.
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