The Princess Academy

Princess Academy

5 out of 5

Shannon Hale


I adored this YA book. 14-year-old Miri loves her life with her father and sister on Mount Eskel, where she spends here days taking care of their home while her sister and father work in the local quarry mining the very beautiful and rare linder stone.

Miri longs to be able to actually work in the quarry, but being born early to a mother that died six days after Miri's birth, she just isn't large enough or strong enough to the the physical work that is required.

Miri's life is about to undergo a dramatic change when the prince announces that it has been foretold that he will find his future wife on Mount Eskel. Such a twitter abounds and all girls between the ages of 13 and 18 are sent off to the Princess Academy where they are taught the fine art of being the perfect princess. The girls were excited about this until they meet their tutor, the horrible Olana who feels that it is her personal duty to torture these young women all in the name of propriety. But Miri and her band of friends have something entirely different in mind and with the help of "quarry-speech" events turn out quite differently when one of the quarry girls has a shocking confession of her own.

Though this book is suggested for ages 9 and up, I think that 9 is a bit too young and that this book would be better appreciated by girls in the 12 to 14 year age group. A little exciting and a little early romance make this a fun book to explore and to share with your daughters.