Chapter Books

The Ordinary Princess

“Was it a good book?”

I asked my daughters this question after finishing The Ordinary Princess. The answer seemed obvious; though I read it to them on my Kindle (complete with some decent illustrations, but still without the attractions of actual ink and paper), they were completely captivated from beginning to end.

“Lots of giggles!” exclaimed my warm-hearted 7-year-old. “And I almost cried at the end!”

“It was great,” said my reflective 9-year-old.

Last week I pondered princess tales of two varieties: the helpless princesses who exist till a prince they don’t know at all sets them free by marrying them, and the self-sufficient ones who decide they want to be single, wage-earning citizens. This week we struck gold with Princess Amy, whose cranky fairy godmother bestows not beauty, but ordinariness, on her as a gift at her birth. She has freckles. She’s sensible, and at times feisty. And when she learns that her father plans to hire a dragon to ravage the countryside in order to attract a suitable prince to marry her, she takes drastic measures — that lead to a truly happy ending.

I’m trying to do this without spoilers, so that’s all I’ll say about the plot. Let me just add that the writing is entertaining and fun. As my daughter said, it’s “full of giggles” — droll and charming, and easy to read with expression. As far as I can tell it was published on 1980, though it feels like an older “classic.”

It’s hard to pick out what I liked best personally. There are several likable characters, the princess foremost. She’s principled, decisive, and capable without being brittle. Among her friends are a red squirrel (Mr. Pemberthy) and a crow (Peter Aurelius), whom she attends to faithfully through thick and thin. But mostly I liked that the story depicted love more convincingly and realistically than some of the better-known princess tales. Here, it starts with friendship — as it did for me. So, there’s an ever-so-slight spoiler — but not enough to do much harm. If you have girls, this one is definitely worth checking out!

Visit Read-Aloud Thursday at Hope Is the Word to see what others are reading this week.

5 Comments

  • Katie

    I am 32, My dad (who was the best story teller in our family!) read this to my sister and I when we were little. It has remained one of my favorite books to this day. I still pick it up when I’m feeling nostalgic. We grew up in the wilds of Africa and Dad rasied us as girls that run barefoot through the woods, so Amy struck a chord! I hope I have kids of my own to read it to one day.