Princess Academy
⭐⭐⭐⭐
I would have been obsessed with this book as a preteen! It hits the perfect balance of having real consequences but never feeling too stressful or hopeless. The main character is a young girl who has always been small for her age and wasn’t allowed to join the rest of the village in the mine as a result. She feels ostracized from them, but the separation leads to her making a discovery that improves everyone’s life in the end.
The fact that the girls are technically competing for a prince but largely didn’t give two shits about him brought me so much joy! They just wanted the escape route or educational access that winning him offered - the amount of effort several put into teaching themselves macroeconomics made my nerdy little heart so happy I can’t even tell you. I also appreciated that a lot of the distance between the main character and other girls was caused by
bad assumptions or adult’s mistakes, rather than because the girls couldn’t get along. I love the lesson hidden there, that generally if you just talk to someone you’ll be able to find common ground.
This is the first in a series, although it stands strong on its own. While I probably won’t come back to finish the series any time soon, that’s more because my niblings (nieces and nephews) are all too young and my cousins too old to have someone to read it with. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who wants a stress-free adventure, and especially for younger folks who are comfortable reading chapter books.
I paired The Princess Academy with a classic Shirley Temple! It was a favorite when I was little, and honestly more enjoyable to drink as an adult than I thought it would be. I went with grenadine and 7up, although I think the original recipe called for ginger ale. If you try either, let me know what you think!
