Princess Academy

The Princess Academy by Shannon Hale is about a girl named Miri who lives in a territory called Mount Eskel. The prince of the country is turning eighteen the next year so he has to be married. The person who foretells where the future princess will come from, says the bride will come from Mount Eskel. The government sends a tutor to take all the girls in Mount Eskel, ages 12-17, to go to the princess academy a few miles away. Miri is one of these girls so she is whisked away to the academy for a year. Here they learn how to read, how to write, history, poise, and other things a princess must face. Miri makes a lot of new friends and even becomes princess of the academy (not the country, just the school). Then the prince comes and meets the girls. The next day he leaves without even choosing his bride and says he will choose in about another six months. When he returns he picks Miri's friend, Britta. Relieved with joy because she didn't want to be princess, Miri returns to her home in Mount Eskel and Britta happily becomes princess.

The theme of this book is love. The Mount Eskel girls are going to the academy to see which girl the prince will love. At the academy the girls tend to think about love quite a bit. Britta, who was not from Mount Eskel, already knew the price and moved to the territory because she already loved him. It turns out even the prince is in love with Britta. After the prince choose his bride, Miri falls in love with a guy named Peder. Miri also loves her family and after a great deal of miscommunication, she finds out they love her back. That is why the theme of this book is love.

The main character in the Princess Academy is Miri. Miri is small, caring, honest, and at the beginning kind of shy and self conscious. At the end she becomes confident, smart, and a leader. Another character is Britta. Britta is from the "lowlands" (which is what people on Mount Eskel call people who live in the rest of the country) and came to Mount Eskel to marry the prince. She is smart, pretty when she smiles, kind, and a good friend to Miri. Peder is the boy who loves Miri. He has blond hair and likes to carve things in stone. Peder is kind-hearted, brave, and is popular among the younger generation in Mount Eskel. 

The Princess Academy  is a great book and is worth reading. The story has a good plot and keeps you interested in it with quick exciting parts in the story and at the ends of the chapters. It is well written and I like the authors voice. You will also tend to like this book better if you are a girl. One inspiring quote from the Princess Academy that comes up repeatedly is "Truth is when your mind and your gut agree.” I hope you enjoy this book.




MLA Citations- 

Hale, Shannon. The Princess Academy. New York: Bloomsbury, 2005. Print.


I got my picture at:  http://bookhavenextraordinaire.blogspot.com/2012/03/princess-academy.html