Princess Academy: Palace of Stone


Princess Academy: Palace of Stone (2012) by Shannon Hale

(second book in the series)

Miri of Mount Eskel is traveling to the city of Danland for a year to help prepare for Britta’s royal wedding and to attend the university there.  Joining her are five other academy graduates and Peder.  Life isn’t quite as ideal as they had all imagined it would be in the big city.  The king has been demanding higher and higher tributes, the people of Danland are hungry and scared, and it seems only a matter of time before a revolution.  Miri is caught between her determination for fair change and her loyalty to her best friend, the future princess.  She also finds herself confused by feelings for a new admirer and her realization that her world has become bigger than her simple life on Mount Eskel.

As with all of Shannon Hale’s books, this novel is masterfully told.  The humanness, courage, intelligence, and humor of Hale’s characters is endearing.  Palace of Stone is definitely a weightier story than the first Princess Academy book.  Our young daughter begged me to read and tell her the first book and was giddy with excitement about hearing this second one.  This book definitely required a lot more edited summarizing, rather than reading.  It’s a wonderful book, and I love how Miri is able to find a courageous balance to hold on to all that is important and dear to her.

Princess Academy

 
Princess Academy (2005) by Shannon Hale

Fourteen-year-old, Miri, lives in the small village of Mount Eskel where almost everyone works in the quarry mining a special stone called linder.  Miri, who is exceptionally small for her age, has been forbidden by her father to join in quarry work.  Although she has her insecurities about not being able to contribute, Miri covers them with her funny stories, carefree talk, and good-natured personality.  Life is rough on the mountain, but nobody ever leaves.  That is, until, one day, a delegate from the palace arrives to announce that Mount Eskel was prophesied as the location of the prince’s future bride.  Now a princess academy is being set up at the base of Mount Eskel for all girls of eligible age.  Not many are pleased by this news, but they must obey the king.  An unfair tutor presides over the small academy, but despite a rough start, Miri proves her intelligence, determination, and bravery will change the fate of their village forever.

This book is a beautiful story that hits all the marks–friendship, courage, romance, family, learning, suspense, self-worth, community, and, yes, even a ball.  I have read this book too many times to count, but I will say that when I first stumbled across it many years ago, I was hesitant.  I’m wary of the “princess” culture that has bombarded our young girls in recent years and wasn’t so sure how I would feel about a book with the title, “Princess Academy.”  In truth, it was the lovely folk art style of the cover that drew me to the book (which I cannot find a link to now), and I’m so glad I judged this book by its cover, because everything inside is beautiful and perfect.  I’m delighted beyond belief that this is only the first of a trilogy of books, but I’ll always return to this one as my favorite.  This was also the book that brought me to Shannon Hale, and for that, I am forever grateful.

 

You might also enjoy:
Princess Academy: The Palace of Stone
Princess Academy: The Forgotten Sisters

Our Magical Visitors and Their Fonts

When our first-born was a baby, I didn’t know how I felt about having Santa visit our house.  I discussed it with my husband and close friends. I read articles about it. I hemmed and hawed it.  Fortunately, those babies give us time to make such decisions.  One of the best pieces of advice I got was that if we did choose to have Santa and the Easter Bunny in our home, we should make a game of it in other times and “play” that we are these characters.

By the time our girl was nearing two, I was giddy with excitement to see her reaction to a visit from St. Nicholas.  Apparently, the decision had been made.  She took on the “play” element with zero prompting from us.  On holidays, we are each instructed by our little director when it’s our turn to “be” Santa, or whomever has recently stopped by.

Now, we have no less than 7! magical visitors.  (How did that happen?)  And while I’d made all sorts of promises to keep it simple and not add to the deception, there are definitely ways I have lapsed on this.  Everyone has their own forms of this, of course; I mean if you’re going to do it, you might as well have some fun, right?  While we don’t do any footprints or costumes or ringing bells, we definitely have gone farther than I had planned.  I had hoped to reflect any questions about these visitors back to our daughter.  “How do YOU think Santa gets down the chimney?”  etc.  And while I usually keep to this rule in person, everything changes when the questions are asked in a direct letter; those magical visitors can’t help but answer.  So now, each visitor has quite an elaborate backstory, which is a combination of our daughter’s long list of questions and her mama’s excitement.  And, as our girl is beginning her reading and writing journey, I couldn’t just have these visitors write their letters in recognizable print.  So, while I’d love these letters to be handwritten, they are way too lengthy to do so in special writing.  Thus was born our Magical Visitors’ Fonts.

I am fortunate to have an incredible stock of scrapbook paper, and after researching some fonts, here’s what we’ve got:

Our leprechauns and their font (They actually do handwrite this font with green whiteboard marker on mirrors and tubs.)

Our Easter Bunny and her font

Our Switch Witch and her font

Our St. Nicholas and his font

Our Christmas Kindness Elf and her font

Our Santa and his font

Our Tooth Fairy and her font (She originally had a different font, but she writes so very tiny that it had to be changed.)

I hope some of these links can help another mama or dada who might be in a pickle trying to figure some of this out!

 

You might also like:

Switch Witch
Tooth Fairy
Christmas Kindness Elf
St. Nicholas
Leprechauns
A New Holiday Helper

A-Z Book Reviews

The Actor’s Life: A Survival Guide
All Thirteen
The American Sign Language Phrase Book
Anne Arrives
Anne of Green Gables
Anne of the Island
Anne of Windy Poplars
Another Whole Nother Story
Astrid the Unstoppable
Austenland
An Awesome Book of Thanks
Ballerina Dreams: From Orphan to Dancer
The Ballad of Valentine
Bean Appetit
Bear by Himself
Bear Snores On
Bears in the Night
Becoming Better Grownups
Beehive
Before We Say “Goodnight”
Being a Bee
Belinda the Ballerina
Bella at Midnight
The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations
Birth Without Violence
Blue in the Face
Book Scavenger
The Boy and the Bindi
Birds
The Brave Learner
The Boy on the Porch
Bridget Jones’s Baby
Chester van Chime Who Forgot How to Rhyme
Chirri and Chirra
City Spies
Coming to America: The Story of Immigration
The Curious Garden
Darth Vader and Son
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
Dodsworth books
The Dot
Dreaming of America: An Ellis Island Story
Dumpling Days
Earth Dance
Ella Enchanted
Ever After: Book of Legends
Feeding the Whole Family
The 5 Love Languages
Flora and the Flamingo
The Forest Feast for Kids
Forest Born
Frindle
Frog and Toad books
The Gifts of Imperfection
The Girl Who Named Pluto
The Giver
The Gnome Project
Good Night, Gorilla
Hanukkah Bear
Heidi
Holes
The Homemade Pantry
The Honeybee
Hooray for Hat!
How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?
How to Catch a Star
How to Have a Birthday
How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind
Hug Machine
I Capture the Castle
I Dreamt I Was a Dinosaur
The Invisible String
Jasmine Toguchi
Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life
Journey
Julie and Julia
Kingbird Highway
A Knot in the Grain and Other Stories
Latkes, Latkes, Good to Eat
Liar and Spy
Life Skills
Ling and Ting
Little Women
Littler Women: A Modern Retelling
The Little Yellow Leaf
Long Live the Queen
Love Monster
Love, Stargirl
Love Sugar Magic
Make the Bread, Buy the Butter
Marilyn’s Monster
Matched
Matchmaking for Beginners
Me, Jane
The Memory Box: A Book About Grief
Milli, Jack, and the Dancing Cat
Miss Fiona’s Pumpkin Pies
The Modern Ayurvedic Cookbook
Momma Zen
The Monster at the End of This Book
More Love, Less Panic
Mouseton Abbey
Mr. Men and Little Miss books
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Mrs. McMurphy’s Pumpkin
Mysterious Benedict Society
Narwhal books
Nurse Matilda
Ogre Enchanted
On a Magical Do-Nothing Day
Our Subway Baby
Over the River and Through the Wood
Peanut Butter and Cupcake
The Philharmonic Gets Dressed
Pinkalicious Fairy House
Pollyanna
Pollyanna Grows Up
Princess Academy
Princess Academy: Palace of Stone
Princess Academy: The Forgotten Sisters
Princess in Black series
Room on the Broom
Ruby Holler
Rump
Our Seasons
The Secret Garden
Shakespeare’s Secret
Sophie Mouse
Snowflake Bentley
Sparkle Boy
Stargirl
Starry River in the Sky
The Story of Ferdinand
The Swedish Way to Parent and Play
Tea with Grandpa
The Teeny Tiny Woman
Ten, Nine Eight
Thank You, Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving at Our House
There is No Good Card for This
There’s No Such Thing as Bad Weather
Thunder Cake
A Time Apart
The Twelve Gifts of Birth
The Unfinished Angel
The Watermelon Seed
What Alice Forgot
What Was I Scared Of?
When Jessie Came Across the Sea
When You Were Small
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
A Whole Nother Story
Winnie-the-Pooh
Witches: The Transformative Power of Women Working Together
The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding
The Woman’s Hour: Our Fight for the Right to Vote
The Word Collector
A Year Down Yonder
The Year of Living Danishly
The Year of the Dog
Yes, Please

 

Matchmaking for Beginners


Matchmaking for Beginners (2018) by Maddie Dawson

It is so rare that I read a book for adults.  This is probably because A) I use reading as an escape, so I don’t want to hear about adult difficulties, and B) There are SO many adult novels out there, that I usually have no idea where to begin to find a book I’ll like.

After a few suggestions of 2018 releases, and a couple ones that just weren’t for me at this time, I finally fell into Matchmaking for Beginners.  And while it does cover “adult” topics like failed marriage, death, infidelity, and tragedy, I still managed to zip right through it.

Elderly Blix Holliday is a bit of an eccentric and the “oddball” of her extended family.  She meets the young Marnie, her grandnephew’s fiancé at a family gathering and immediately connects with her.  While Marnie is a bit unsure of herself at the time, both women find out they can sense people’s energies and use it to find good love matches for other people.  Not so great at love matches for herself, however, Marnie’s doomed marriage ends during the honeymoon.  She sets about trying to piece her life back together in her childhood home.  Meanwhile, Blix is dying but hasn’t mentioned it to her family.  When Blix unexpectedly leaves her Brooklyn home to Marnie, instead of family, everyone is surprised.  Marnie has no intention of staying in the home, of course, but during her time in Brooklyn she becomes involved in the lives of those around her, finding herself in a role of helping others find love, including herself.

While I wouldn’t say that matchmaking is the central theme of this novel, despite what the title says, I found myself glued to the story and unable to stop myself from starting new chapters way past bedtime.  A very enjoyable read, even if it is a book for grown-ups.  =D