The Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

Miri, named for a small flower that grows in the mountains, is a 14-year-old girl who lives in a mountain village. All of the people in the village work in the mountains to quarry the precious rock, which they in turn barter for food with traders from the lowlands. Everyone work in the quarry. Men, women and children all have a role to play, whether it's mining, cutting, or even delivering water to people busily hammering away, everyone except Miri that is. Her father has forbidden her to work with the rest of the village in the quarry and Miri believes this is because she is so much smaller and weaker than everyone else, so she has always felt somewhat left out. All is normal in the small village until one trading day when along with the lowland traders comes an emissary from the royal palace saying that all of the girls in the village would have to attend a princess academy because the prince would be choosing one of them to be the new princess. As is tradition in the kingdom, the royal oracles have a vision that tells them which village the next princess will come from. There is then a princess academy opened up in that area to prepare the eligible young girls to meet the prince and have him choose one of them. Up until this moment however, Miri's village had never heard of this tradition. The only real contact they have with the rest of the kingdom is through the traders. Miri and several of the other girls go to a makeshift school some distance away from the village and are taught to read as well as think and act like polished young ladies found in a royal court. Miri, as well as several of the other girls enjoy learning these new things and realize just how far removed their little village was from the rest of the kingdom and just how much they did not know. As the girls learn more and the day the prince will come gets closer, the competition between the girls get fierce and Miri feels more alone than she ever has in her life. Despite this, Miri remains strong and even finds some unexpected friendships. Trouble falls upon the girls and Miri takes it upon herself to save both herself and the girls from the danger.

Miri is a spunky heroine. Because she is so small she acts larger than life. She can be kind of mouthy at times and you can picture her as one of those tiny people who never stop talking. There are moments when her personality is almost too big to be believable and kind of obnoxious, but the author does a good job of stopping at that point. There is a thin line between spunky and obnoxious and though Miri has moments of coming close to being obnoxious, she is mostly just high- spirited. She is a proactive heroine which is great. She always tries to make the situations she is in work for her. She doesn't just stand for injustice or bullying, she acts in a way that will best accomplish what she is ultimately after, which is surprisingly not the prince. Miri is interested in the prince, but she's not boy-crazy. She actually gets more out of learning at the academy than she does preparing for the prince and actually uses her knowledge to help her village. In many of these prince princess stories the heroine is insanely in love with the prince and want to become a princess, but Miri notes practically that she's never even met the prince. As the story progresses Miri thinks more and more that she wouldn't mind being picked by the prince, but this is because she wants to see more of the world and not so much because she's in love with the title. In that sense the heroine reminded me of the heroines of the Alanna series by Pierce and the Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Wrede.

The story also really promoted education. As Miri learns more and more her desire to learn becomes voracious and she tries to learn as much as she can. She then applies what she learned to various situations, and this can really help children see the wonder in learning and the reason we learn things. A common complaint I've heard in school is that the kids don't know why they're learning what they're learning. This book could be an inspiration of sorts to these kinds of kids, more to girls than boys due to the subject matter.

Overall I think this was a good read. It isn't ground breaking topic-wise, but the heroine has a back-bone. The story isn't an adventure, but there is action, danger, suspense, and a little bit of romance. The story a mix between a fantasy and a Victorian novel for kids. Pretty good read.