Princess Academy

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

This book isn't all sparkles and pretty rainbows as the title might suggest.  Princess Academy is about the most rugged community of girls you'll ever meet.  These girls can throw rocks farther than your dad can (unless he's an Olympic shot putter) and they aren't afraid to work hard.  They are mountain girls.

Suddenly they are summoned to the Princess Academy where they are to be educated and trained as a princess so that the Prince can select his bride at the ball the next year.  Olana, a fearfully strict tutor, keeps the girls silent nearly all of the time and if they disobey, it's to the rat-infested closet for them!

Miri, a particularly small mountain girl, who is insecure about her size finds herself excelling in her studies and discovering quarry-speech.  A method of speaking for those who have the linder stone in their blood.  (People who live on the mountain, eat, sleep, and breath linder).  With this speech she is able to communicate with her peers and she learns more about herself and others who live on the mountain.

Throughout the story Miri in unsure whether she would like to marry the prince and move away from her family.  She is smitten with Peder, a mountain boy, and can't help wondering if he feels the same way. Then, on the day they are to return home, bandits capture and hold the girls hostage.  Can Miri, the smallest one of the bunch, find a way to get help?  And what will she do if the prince selects her?  What about Peder?

This is a great book for children ages 8-12.  Highly recommended for those young mountain girls out there!