The Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

This book reminds me of the Penderwicks (reviewed earlier) in terms of being a wholesome, engaging book, especially for girls.

Miri, the main character, is a small mountain girl who is sent to the Princess Academy along with all the marriageable girls in her village. This group is to be educated and trained as suitable brides for the Prince. Royal priests have read in the stars that the Prince’s future bride would be from Miri’s village, and these mountain girls are not yet versed in the ways of the court. Their tutor has several months to prepare them.

This is not your average fairy tale. It is a refreshingly honest story about the mixed feelings of the girls and their hope of becoming a princess mingled with trepidation about what that would truly mean to them. There is an authenticity about the girls’ jealousies, competiveness, and ties of love and loyalty that bind them in their small community.

It has plot twists, strong characters, and admirable virtues woven into an engaging story. The romance is done just-right for a tween crowd.

One odd quirk is the “quarry-speech” that Miri and the mountain people can use to communicate. Quarry-speech is a way of communicating without speech that the mountain people can call upon. It involves being able to send a memory/visual picture to another mountaineer. Though it technically seems like some quasi-ESP experience, it read to me as fitting with the fantasy-like atmosphere of the novel. The villagers developed this as a way to stay safe in the quarry where they mine for Linder; the speech is necessary for them to communicate when they can’t be heard for the safety of the workers.

SAFETY RATING: 3 Vatican Flags

(Hat-tip to Shae; one of my best tween book-finders)