Princess Academy: Looks aren’t everything


Editor’s Note: The following is the second in a series of occasional book reviews by Claire Ramsey, the Director of Youth Services at the H. Leslie Perry Memorial Library. Like all of the books that Ms. Ramsey reviews, each title is available for circulation at the library and is highly recommended.

What if a lovely and slender Cinderella hated the way she looked because she could not work in the quarry that fed and supported everyone she cared about? What if, instead of hate and jealousy, she was trapped by her father’s overprotective love?

Meet Miri of Mount Eskel, a girl named for the delicate flowers that sprout in the cracks of the linder rock that the people of Mount Eskel mine for a living. Miri feels scrawny and ugly next to the large powerful girls who can help shape the rock and support the town. Likewise, the mountain people know they are scorned by the sophisticated and educated lowland traders. That is, until the king’s representatives arrive and declare that Mount Eskel is the town from which the prince will choose his bride. An academy is formed and all marriageable girls are commanded to attend to learn everything they need to know to marry a prince.

Discovering for the first time that she is smart and good at something people value, Miri begins to dream of leaving Mount Eskel and providing a house and comfort for her father and sister. Still, the thought of marrying the prince as the price for that dream leaves her confused and unhappy, especially when she thinks of her best friend in Mount Eskel, a boy named Peder…

Join Miri in her adventures as she and the other girls struggle at the academy, are captured by bandits, and learn the mysterious quarry speech that seems to spring from the linder rock of Mount Eskel itself. Any one who has secretly felt laughed at, lonely, or left out will find a sympathetic friend in Miri… but will the mountain Cinderella marry the prince? Does she even want to?