robinmichele's Full Review: Gail Carson Levine - Princess Sonora and the Long ...
Gail Carson Levine seems to have a thing for retelling Fairy Tales. You may be most familiar with her as the renowned author of the Newbery Honors book Ella Enchanted, a new "spin" on the Cinderella theme. She has started a new Intermediate Series called "The Princess Tales", and this is the third installment, a reworking of the Sleeping Beauty story.
Plot is Plot is Plot
All is well in the kingdom of Biddle. A new baby princess has been born, and the King and Queen are showing her off to the fairies. And fairies do as fairies will, so they are bestowing gifts upon the little royal. For the most part, we have the usual attributes, beauty, a loving heart, good health, gracefulness, intelligence, wait... A fairy couldn't think of another gift so she made Princess Sonora 10 times smarter than anyone else. Wow. That could make things interesting.
Our nice little party gets crashed. (Oh come, now- you were expecting it, yes?) It seems our Royal Highnesses forgot to invite the fairy Belladonna. Oopsie.
But no hard feelings, right? Belladonna has brought a gift in spite of being socially snubbed. She's just that kind of fairy. Her gift is that Sonora will eventually prick her finger on a needle and die. (Is there a gift receipt with that?) Having made her appearance, Belladonna is off to other matters.
Ahh, but there is one fairy left to give her gift, and so it is resolved that Sonora will not die, but will sleep for 100 years until she is awakened by a kiss. Convenient.
As you may have noticed, we are not straying very far from the Sleeping Beauty story. In fact, it seems that the intelligence of Sonora is the only thing that differentiates her from the original tale. Hmmm. Well, you would be right, the plot is almost identical. Somewhere a finger gets pricked, lots of sleeping goes on. and voila, some kissing, and a Happily Ever After.
Other Elements
Well, it seems that Sonora's intelligence is more of a hinderance than a help. People in the village make fun of her because she is constantly spouting off bits of knowledge. She has the nerve to study their chores and try to find ways to make them easier! Mercy! The child doesn't know that her help is unwanted. People like to do things the way they have always done things. All those newfangled ideas make life complicated... Why build a better mousetrap when the old one works just fine?
So the townspeople make up a new saying. Whenever someone asks an impossible question, they ask "But, who knows?" Then the other person will answer "Princess Sonora knows... But don't ask her!" And Sonora is just trying to help. Humph!
The writing is excellent! Levine retells this old tale with quite a bit of flair and humor. Her style is accessible and entertaining. I won't spill the beans about the prince that rescues Sonora from her slumber, but suffice it to say that there is a lid for every pot, making that Happily Ever After much more probable.
While I enjoyed this book immensely, it wasn't as riveting as Ella Enchanted. If you pick only one book by Levine to read, go read that one. If you like that, you will probably get your kicks out of this one, too.
This is a book for the intermediate age group, roughly 7-12 years old. If your child digs fairy tales or fantasy, this should be a delightful pick for their shelf. At $8.95 in Cloth (hardback), it is a bargain indeed.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.