Princess Academy

HI,

Who has read the book ‘Princess Academy” by Shannon Hale? That is the book I am currently reading. This book is about  a girl named Miri who attends an academy with several other girls from her home in Mount Eskel. One of the academy girls becomes the princess in the end of the book. I enjoyed reading this book because the ending isn’t what you expected it to be, so it’s not really a fairytale though it is a happy ending story. This book won a Newberry honor medal. It is very interesting, full of suspense, well-written with descriptive words making pictures in your mind, and I think it deserved the reward it recieved.

I made several connections with the story. Here is one of the connections I made. It is a text/text connection. When Miri and the girls from Mount Eskel are forced to go to the academy, it reminds me of the book “Chains” where two black sisters have to become slaves to a white family just because they are black. This helps me fully understand how lucky I am to not be forced to do anything or go anywhere.

One of the themes of the story is friendship. There are many friendships in this story and all of them are strong and true. Here are some examples of the friendships in the story. Peder is friends with Miri and will answer her cry for help even if it’s in the middle of the night. Miri is friends with Britta and will stick by her side even if the other girls think that Britta is a snobby lowlander girl. Miri is friends with Gerti and will stick up for her even if it means receiving unfair punishment in return.

At first I thought that Miri was going to marry the prince and become queen one day. But then I read on and realized that this doesn’t happen and Miri does not become princess, yet she is still happy and the book has a happy ending.  This helped transform my thought of how you don’t need to marry a prince and become queen to be happy.   This also makes me think of how a lot of the books that are surprising are good ones and some of the predictable books are too predictable and boring.

In conclusion, I rate “Princess Academy” 5 stars out of 5 because it isn’t predictable and it lures you in right from the start. If you are looking for a book without a sappy ending, yet a happy ending, then this is the right book for you.