The Princess Tales
Juvenile Fiction
Harper Collins
March 21, 1999
Paperback
96
Gail Carson Levine charmed the world with Ella Enchanted, her spirited retelling of the Cinderella story. Now this award-winning author turns her attention to two more classic fairy tales, and deftly turns them upside down and inside out with her trademark wit and hilarity. In The Fairy's Mistake, two very different sisters have two very different encounters with the fairy Ethelinda. Rosella is kind and helpful. Her reward: Jewels and gems tumble out of her mouth whenever she speaks. Myrtle is rude and spiteful. Her punishment: Bugs and vipers slither out of her mouth. The fairy Ethelinda feels she's meted out justice just right--until she discovers Rosella has been locked up by a greedy prince and Myrtle is having the time of her life! In The Princess Test, King Humphrey has decided its time for his son, Prince Nicholas, to marry. But he must make sure the bride is a real princess. So he devises a series of princess tests, designed to weed out the phonies and the fakes. Meanwhile, Nicholas has fallen in love with Lorelei, a mere blacksmith's daughter. She's no princess, but he wants to marry her all the same--but how will she ever pass the terrible tests? In these first two delightfully entertaining, laugh-out-loud Princess Tales, Gail Levine gently spoofs the notion that fairies are always right and that tests can never prove a persons worth, but holds fast to the notion that true love will always win in the end.
WrensReads Review:
Do you like retelling of fairy-tales? Gail Carson Levine is the author for you. She is witty, and pokes fun at fairy-tales all the while making you love the story even more.
“She cried when her porridge was too hot or too cold or too salty or too bitter or too sweet. She cried when her bathwater was too hot or too cold or too wet or not wet enough.”
– The Princess Test by Gail Carson Levine
Just by the first page, you can grasp the humor Levine puts in her words. Her use of run-on sentences leaves you out of breath and laughing from the repetitiveness.
In The Princess Test, a retelling of a Danish fairy tale called The Princess and the Pea by Hans Christian Andersen (or “The Princess on the Peas”) a little girl named Lorelei has a humble heart and is kind to anyone and everyone she meets. The problem is that even though she wants to help and wants to contribute to the household chores, she always ends up hurt in one way or another.
The nanny her father hired does not like Lorelei because she is so lazy! She can’t do anything without getting hurt! She wants to “do her off..”
Prince Nicholas has two parents that never agree on anything. If one thinks it’s too salty, the other thinks it’s too sweet. The king and queen come up with a test that maidens will undertake who want to marry Nicholas. Lorelei, after some unfortunate events, becomes an applicant…
What will happen? Will Nicholas and Lorelei end up together? Will Lorelei end up accidentally hurt herself beyond repair? What exactly are the test and why are they so ridiculous but so true?
Levine has a splash of humor you will not find anyone else. Using plays on words and awkward humor, this is perfect for a story for a young girl or for a grown woman who can’t get enough of fairy-tales (cough me), as long as the scary nanny’s thoughts don’t run you off. I will always be a fan of Levine’s writing.
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