A girl from a poor mountain village is sent to an academy where the prince will choose his bride
A village girl, a strange school and a hidden gift
Fourteen-year-old Miri lives on Mount Eskel, a rocky village where families quarry a precious stone called linder. She is small, and her father will not let her work in the quarry, which makes her feel useless. Then word arrives from the capital: the royal advisers have foretold that the prince's future bride will come from Mount Eskel, and every girl of the right age must attend an academy to prepare.
Who will enjoy it
Readers aged about nine to fourteen, and adults, who enjoy gentle fantasy about friendship, courage, learning and a heroine who finds her strength.
What you will get
A warm, thoughtful fantasy about a girl who discovers that education, friendship and her own voice can change the fortunes of her whole village.
Princess Academy Facts: Pages, Genre and Setting
Genre
Children’s Books · Mountains · Friendship · Coming of age
Length
314 pages · ≈ 9 h
More about this book
At the academy, the girls are taught by Olana, a strict tutor from the lowlands who punishes them harshly and looks down on their village. Miri discovers that she loves learning: reading, history, geography, diplomacy and, unexpectedly, commerce. With her new knowledge she realizes that the lowland traders have been paying her village far too little for its linder, and she begins to see how knowledge could change life on the mountain.
Miri also discovers quarry-speech, a silent way of passing memories and messages from mind to mind that the quarry workers use while they sing, and learns to use it in new ways. Friendships and rivalries form among the girls, especially with the clever, ambitious Katar and the newcomer Britta, while Miri worries about her feelings for her friend Peder. When danger comes to the isolated academy in winter, the girls must rely on courage and everything they have learned. The tension is real but suitable for younger readers.
Gentle, wise and adventurous, with a heroine who learns that knowledge and kindness are their own kind of strength, followed by Palace of Stone and The Forgotten Sisters. About 314 pages in the Bloomsbury paperback.
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The Tale of Despereaux
Anne of Green Gables
The Two Princesses of Bamarre
Heidi
Smile
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The House at Pooh Corner
Frog and Toad Together
Frog and Toad Are Friends
Little House on the Prairie