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!

The Sisters Grimm

The Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckley is an adventure story with two heroines.  Sabrina and Daphne have been mysteriously abandoned by their parents and left to the foster care system.  After a few bad experiences and creating a grisly Sabrina in response, a woman who claims to be their long-lost grandmother shows up and takes the girls home.  Sabrina attempts to escape and Daphne, being younger and therefore a little too innocent, according to Sabrina, befriends the elderly woman and to Sabrina's dismay the girls end up on a quest to save their "grandmother."  After a few harrowing events involving giants, fairy dust, and Prince Charming, the girls, especially Sabrina, begin to believe their may be some truth to their grandmother's story, but now the problem is: can they save their grandmother from the giant and can they get to her before the three fat pigs?  Grades 3 and up.

Freddy and the Baseball Team From Mars

Freddy and the Baseball Team From Mars by Walter R. Brooks was published in 1955 and while there are some antiquated terms and phrases, the content of the story is excellent for that youthful reader seeking mystery, a little bit of fright, sports, and science fiction.  Freddy is a walking, talking pig, who mingles among animals and humans alike.  He is such a nice and intelligent pig that the aliens who have recently settled in town have long since befriended Freddy and ask him to help them find their missing friend.  The mystery unfolds as Freddy decides to investigate the missing critter by building a baseball team and competing with suspects.  The book holds all those key elements young readers are looking for as well as the gentlemanly behaviors and etiquette of the mid-20th Century, among animals no less.  Grades 3 and up.