Princess Academy
By Shannon Hale
Read: April 2010
Rating: Really sweet
I’ve been wanting to read this for a long while, but never enough to get around to buying it. Luckily, my bestie had a copy she let me borrow. Very, very glad I got to read it at last.
Miri lives with her family on top of a mountain, where the villagers work for a special stone called linder. Though she’s about fourteen now, and all her peers have been working in the quarry for years, Miri is never allowed to set foot there. She is very small, and not very strong, so she always sees herself as too weak to be useful. She wonders if her father can love such a weak girl.
One day a message comes from the capital. It is their nation’s tradition to have priests foretell the region where their crown prince will find his bride. They have determined that Miri’s mountain is the home of the next princess, as backwards and isolated as it is. In the past, ‘princess academies’ have been created to groom the girls of marriageable age–usually just an excuse for more social events in large cities. But these girls need to be taught everything, from reading to math to geography and then courtly etiquette, politics, commerce, debate, etc. They have one year to learn enough to become a princess.
At first Miri is unwilling to go because she is needed at home. Then she sees that this academy could prove her worth. Even if she’s not chosen as the princess (and she’s really not sure she wants to be a queen or a bride), the academy will crown its best student as academy princess. Surely then her Pa will see she is not useless!
The book is refreshingly skillful, the opposite of ham-handed. Hale has crafted both a clever, rational girl, and a textured story that doesn’t play out as expected. In fact, it managed to trick me completely. I was certain one character would marry the prince in the end, and it turned out to be someone I had dismissed.
First off, praise for not making the prince everyone’s heart’s desire. Even the girl who most wants to win isn’t interested in marrying a prince–she just wants to travel and see the world. Miri wants to be helpful to the village she calls home. All have conflicted feelings–winning means money, stature, etc., but it also means leaving home behind and marrying a stranger to live in a strange place.
Their teacher is flatter than I would have liked. She treats them like wild animals that need disciplining… but she’s open to compromise once convinced of their ability to learn.
There’s a lot of school girl drama. Miri makes enemies before she makes friends. Even among girls who grew up together, there’s tension old and new. That’s probably the thread most young readers will sympathize with first. Hale is so skilled that they won’t realize how she’s guiding them through first love, intellectual curiosity, ambition, and family.
The ending is mostly satisfying, which is what a good fairy tale needs to be. Lotsa thumbs up. I hope Hale has more along these lines.
