by Jessica Day George
Summary from Jessica's site:
Returning home from the war, young Galen finds work with his mother’s family in the royal gardens. There he learns that the king’s twelve daughters have a secret: every night they dance their shoes to tatters, but no one knows how or why. When prince after prince tries and fails to find the answer, and the family is haunted by accusations of witchcraft, Galen decides to help. Armed with a pair of silver knitting needles and an invisibility cloak given to him by a strange old woman, he follows the princesses and unlocks the secret of their curse.
I'm not sure I've ever read the Twelve Dancing Princesses fairy tale, and the two fairy tale books we have at home don't contain it, so I have no idea how closely this story follows the original. But, there are 12 sisters. While they all have their own personalities, it was hard to keep track of them. In fact, other than knowing Rose, Lily, and Jonquil were the oldest three and Petunia was the baby I can't actually tell you where anyone else in line fell. However, I don't think that aspect actually took much from the story. The sisters we really need to know about I had no trouble keeping track of.
I never fully realized what it was about the bad guy that made him so bad in the first place. He is definitely evil by the time we see him but more of his back story would have been appreciated.
I thought it was kind of strange that the main character of this book was a boy. It worked, but it's not what I would have guessed based on the cover, title, etc. That being said, I found this to be a delightfully fun, light read.
4 out of 5 stars
1 comment:
I wish I'd reread the kid's version before I read the book, because it has been YEARS (like 15 or more) since I read the original story and I couldn't remember what was JDG's additions and what was part of the original story.
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