Middle Grade Fiction
Princess Harriet gets recruited to save twelve princesses from a curse. Every night they seem to wear out their dance slippers, but no one has been able to solve the puzzle of where they go and why, and according to the fairy who recruits Harriet, time is running out for the princesses. Harriet is on the case. And in her own indomitable way, she'll save the day...and hopefully straighten out some whacky rulers in the process.
Target Readers:
- Hamster Princess fans/Humor Fans/Fractured Fairy Tale Fans: Princess Harriet (along with her trusty riding quail Mumfrey and friend Prince Wilbur) is always guaranteed to turn a fairy tale all sorts of new ways and in the process provide several laughs.
- Reluctant Readers: With a large font, illustrations throughout, and Harriet’s antics, this series is a great choice for reluctant readers.
- Read Aloud Fans: Those looking for a read aloud a whole family or class can enjoy should give Hamster Princess a try.
The Princess Curse by Merrie Haskell
Peasant girl Reveka lives in Sylvania, a kingdom near Transylvania, threatened by wars with the Turks on one side and the Hungarians on the other. Because of the turmoil, Reveka grew up in a convent while her soldier father was off at war. It was there she learned to be an herbalist. At thirteen, Reveka was apprenticed to the royal herbalist. And for the sake of the kingdom, it is a good thing Reveka is now working for the castle, because they have a big problem. For six years now, the twelve princesses have been nightly wearing out their shoes, and anyone who tries to sneak into their chambers to find out why ends up in an enchanted sleep...a sleep that no one ever wakes from, and some have even died from. And that's not all, other people have just up and totally disappearing from the kingdom. The king is at his whit's end trying to solve this curse, and has offered a daughter's hand in marriage or a handsome dowry to any man or woman who can solve the curse. Of course, since most who try for this end up snoozing away, the takers have dropped over the years. But Reveka would love to get her hands on that dowry and buy a spot in a convent to set up her own little herbary, so she has set her mind on finding a cure to the sleeping sickness and the curse. Eventually, she does get to the root of the princesses' curse. And she does find the solution…someone must agree to marry the King of the Underworld, who happens to be a zmeu (a dragon that can take human form). But finding the answer to the mystery of the princesses' shoes just results in more questions. Why is he so desperate for a queen, what is going on in the Underworld that souls there seem to slip away just like the sleeping cursed do, and how is that affecting the political situation in Sylvania? Can Reveka's skills help find the cure for both those in the Underworld and the Upper World?
Note: Click on title to see content notes.
Target Readers:
- Cleverly Rewritten Fairy Tale Fans/Re-imagined History Fans: This rendition is so fresh, but also authentically rooted in European history, has a slightly Grimm-like feel, and incorporates folklore so it sounds like a plausible basis for the further variations that have been created. It is also not just a version of the Dancing Princesses, because there are also shades of Sleeping Beauty and Beauty in the Beast in the story too. And I love how Haskell added that aspect. It gave the story such a fresh spin, incorporated some interesting mythology along with the regional folklore, and left me wholly dissatisfied that there is not a sequel. Because although the dancing princesses part of the story gets solved, the Beauty and the Beast aspects of the story promise so much more yet to be told, and I feel like we just got started on getting to know Reveka.
- Dragon Fans: Hand this one to your favorite reader who just can’t get enough dragons.
- Those on the Middle Grade-Young Adult Bubble: Though this is labelled as a middle grade book, I would actually say it has more of a young adult feel. The curse is darker than normal, and Reveka's voice is more mature since there really was no "teen" stage in that time period. Girls her age were considered adults in many ways and she talks more like an adult, and faces more adult decisions and pressures. (But there isn’t really any adult content to worry about.)
The Thirteenth Princess by Diane Zahler
Zita does not realize until she's several years old that all the beautiful princesses who live upstairs are her sisters. See, her mother, the Queen, died during her birth and it so devastated the King that he decided to get Zita out of his sight and have her raised as a servant in the castle. Zita avoids her father as much as possible because he only seems to scowl at her appearance, but she happily is welcomed with open arms by her twelve older sisters who try and smuggle her into their room as much as possible. Though the King has banished all magic from the kingdom, there is obviously something strange going on. Whenever eligible princes come to visit the beautiful princesses, none of the princesses are able to speak and the princes go home feeling ill-treated. Over time other strange things happen. The twelve princesses seem to appear more and more fatigued and no physician can figure out the illness, and for some reason the princesses' dancing shoes need more and more regular repair, even though there has been no dancing in the kingdom since their mother's death. Zita can't just stand by and watch her sisters waste away to nothing, so she -- along with her friend the stable boy, his soldier brother, and the kindly witch hidden in the woods -- start investigating what is going on and how to break this evil spell.
Note: Click on title for content notes.
Target Readers:
- Fairy Tale Rewrite Fans/Fantasy Fans: I have a whole group of students who faithfully devour and then re-devour Diane Zahler’s fairy tale retellings. Zahler stays pretty true to the average tellings of tales with slight variations of her own, but her tellings are still sophisticated, enthralling, and readers can’t seem to get enough of them.
Young Adult Fiction
Entwined by Heather Dixon
Azalea loves dancing. And all of her little sisters follow in her dancing footsteps. But when the Queen dies during the birth of the 12th sister that night, mourning is brought on the house, and there will be only black dresses and no dancing for a year. While the girls adored their mother, they feel like their father, the King, is distant and uncaring. In fact, less than 24 hours after the Queen's death, the King is running off to war in another country, seemingly abandoning them in their need. In the days that follow, the girls try to secretly dance in the ballroom, as going through the steps their mother taught them brings them comfort, but the palace steward catches them and locks the ballroom. The girls feel stifled and unloved. But an unexpected outlet and joy comes in the form of a magical secret passageway they stumble upon, which leads to a silvery land where they can dance till their shoes run out and is looked over by an incredibly handsome magical man named Keeper. Of course, the shoes wearing thin is a problem. Eventually the King returns from the war, only to find himself in a battle on the home front. The princesses do not trust him and find the way he forbids any mention or hint of the Queen unloving and harsh. The princesses have made an oath on a magical object never to tell anyone about Keeper or their dancing, so when the King discovers the worn state of their shoes and their inability (beyond their unwillingness) to tell him anything about it, he puts an ad in the paper asking for men to come solve the riddle of the dancing princesses. The King has secondary motives for this as well. He sees his daughters getting older and coming of age, but mourning prevents them from mixing in society and meeting any possible suitors. Most of the riddle solvers are a joke, and the girls manage to get rid of them in fast order. But things in the dancing realm with Keeper are getting more and more odd, even sinister, and Azalea especially is beginning to regret ever having made the oath that prevents her from talking over her worries with the King. As the suitors/riddle solvers come and go, Azalea and the other girls start to wonder if a princess can ever find someone who will love her for herself and not her title, or if they can be saved from Keeper.
Note: Some disturbing psychological tricks employed by Keeper.
Target Readers:
- Fairy Tale Rewrite Fans/Clean Romance Fans/Fantasy Fans: This is one of the most interesting versions of the twelve dancing princesses I've ever come across. Usually, the stories fall into one of two camps. Either all the girls are under a curse and need to be rescued from the dancing or the girls are escaping to dance as an act of willful disobedience and there's no curse involved. This version mixes both. The girls start out doing the secret dancing as an act of willful disobedience, but they eventually realize it is a horrible magical trap with dire consequences.
- Rich Character Development Fans/Father-Daughter Relationship Book Fans: I really liked what Dixon did with that father/daughter relationship, how she had the relationship grow and change over time and all the lessons both sides learned along the way. She also manages to develop ALL of the princesses, not just one of them which is often the case in Dancing Princess retellings.
- Fans of Books That Explore Themes of Depth/Non-shallow Relationship Fans: I thought there were some great themes in the book about the shallowness of beauty/handsomeness and title/wealth, and that the girls who did fall in love, fell in love with men who loved them for themselves (and got to know them over a period of time...no "10 minutes ago I met you..." and I already love you stuff). Also to be wary of hasty oaths and judging people without getting to know them.
- Dance Lovers/Music Lovers: There are a lot of details about dance and music in here, even detail descriptions of the princesses’ dances for dance lovers. I liked the way Dixon created themes for different parts of the girls' lives, almost like thematic background music. The parts with Keeper were darker and mysterious, which added more and more sinister tones as it went on. While the parts with the suitors and the King got more and more lighthearted and sometimes downright funny. (I absolutely loved the comedic interactions of the girls with the suitors!)
Princess of the Midnight Ball (The Princesses of Westfalin, #1) by Jessica Day George
Queen Maude was so desperate to have children, she made a deal with the King Under Stone. In return for some dancing, he would magically enable her to have children. But Maude, in her desperation, did not realize one doesn't make deals with the King Under Stone without eventually regretting it. It was not without reason that ancient magicians imprisoned him far away from the rest of the world. When the Queen dies before being able to fulfill her dancing contract, the King Under Stone requires her twelve daughters to complete the contract. Of course, the contract also prevents them from telling anyone why they wear out their dancing slippers so frequently. The princesses earnestly wish they could stop. They know money is tight after the recent war with Analousia, and the people think the girls are selfish to spend all this money on dance slippers at such a time. But stopping isn't an option. The king becomes convinced this must stop when the princesses continue to dance regardless of being deathly ill with fevers. So he offers a reward for any prince who can solve the puzzle. Not only are the princes unsuccessful, but there starts to be an alarming rash of fatal accidents suffered by the investigators soon after they leave. The king and the princesses have just about abandoned hope. Other nations have become suspicious and are accusing the princesses of witchcraft, and the archbishop places the town under Inderdict and the royal family under investigation. Galen, the nephew of the palace gardener has watched matters proceed with growing concern. He has come to care for the princesses, especially the eldest Rose, and earnestly desires to help break their curse. He knows the accusations of witchcraft are false, but he also knows it will be very hard to uncover the truth. With a little help from a magical cape and a fellow gardener who may know more than he lets on, Galen sets out to solve the princesses' mystery and free them from the curse of the King Under Stone.
Note: Some violence.
Target Readers:
- Fairy Tale Retelling Fans/Clean Romance Fans/Fantasy Fans: This version of the tale really paints the princesses as innocent victims, and the reader comes to truly empathize with their position. The introduction of the accusation of witchcraft and the placement of an Inderdict on the town are unique to this version, and make it feel like the most realistic version I've read. There's plenty of fantasy elements, but they are added to a historical-feeling Europeanish setting (many country names are slight variations on real or historic kingdom's names) with all the political dangers facing the characters at the same time as fantasy dangers. Galen is probably one of my favorite versions of the soldier-hero too. He's practical, humble, and caring. He's also got a good head on his shoulders during times of distress, which is believably attributed to his time in the army. The climax of this version was one of the most tense. It isn't as simple as normal. Galen doesn't free them from the curse by just telling the king and showing a couple trinkets from the underground world. Ms George spun the ending in such a way, I really wasn't sure how the girls would get free between the machinations of the King Under Stone and his sons, and the deviousness of the Bishop Angier who is investigating the witchcraft charges. So she managed to make the ending of an extremely well known tale intense enough to keep me reading when I probably should have been sleeping, which says something for her creativity and writing skill.
- Series Fans: This book is the first in a trilogy. The next book in the series continues by following the sisters through a Cinderella retelling and then the next book is a Red Riding Hood/Robin Hood retelling (with some resurgence of the Dancing Princesses tale).
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