Come for the fun, magical premise; stay for the hopeful, beautiful story.
A sixth grader swaps places with a princess from the world she created.
Fantasy lover Auden “Denny” Greene has been writing about fairy-tale world Sorrowfeld with best friend Runa Rossi for years. But lately, Runa has been less interested in adding to their journal, The Tale of Dragons True, and more focused on fitting in with the mean, popular girls; her latest worldbuilding contribution is the rule that at 12, “a true princess is not a child anymore.” After Denny and Runa’s disastrous shared 12th birthday party, Denny looks into a mysterious mirror adorned with dragons—her present from Runa—and suddenly she’s in Sorrowfeld, where she’s now Princess Auden. In the real princess’ viewpoint chapters, she’s anxious about turning 12 and clueless about how to fulfill her duty to stop the threatening dragons. Trading lives and ending up in Denny’s world initially offers her a reprieve, but she’s ill-equipped to handle modern preteen social dynamics. Both girls’ storylines explore childhood warring with heavy pressures—the dragons plaguing Sorrowfeld and Denny’s mother’s struggles with alcoholism. Even antagonistic characters are given nuance. Both girls find their way through their problems with courage, compassion, and creativity. The parallels between the story arcs shine, lending authenticity even to the most fantastical elements and adding emotional weight as the girls, who are cued white, grapple with the destructive aspects of grief and expectations. The ending emphasizes heart and understanding.
Come for the fun, magical premise; stay for the hopeful, beautiful story. (Fantasy. 8-13)Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9780063348141
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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