Princess Academy

I just read a book, called “Princess Academy,” by Shannon Hale which a friend of mine got for me two years ago, for the first time this semester and I couldn’t help falling in love with it. It is a read meant for a younger audience but I don’t care it was really good. It was nice to read something that you don’t have to worry about and just get lost in, like i did. The thing i like about this book the most was its message that anyone and everyone can have a fairytale ending (in a matter of speaking), even those who don’t think that they do. “Princess Academy” is a romantic fantasy novel and is about... you guessed it a princess academy. Although many of you might have already read this book here’s a little of what this book is about.
Miri is a girl whose body is much weaker than that of a teenager’s. She lives in a mythical place on a mountain called Mt. Eskel, a far from Danland. She is never allowed to work with the rest of the villagers in the quarry, where Linder, the community’s main export is cut, because she is so fragile and so she feels like an outcast, cut off from the culture that is largely formed by their working life in the quarry. You see it’s really loud in the quarry so they use something called quarry speech to communicate, but know one knows how it really works and everyone thinks that it is only possible to use in the quarry. Then there is Peder, Miri's best friend since childhood, whom she is beginning to have a crush on. Basically the main plot of the book is Miri trying to find self-worth by someway helping her home.
So her prayers are answered when one of the king’s messengers announces that a prophecy of the next princess will come from Mt. Eskel, despite the lack of education provided for the villagers and despite the prejudice that exists between the mountain villagers and the lowlanders. So then they set up a princess academy, to train the young girls, like Miri, in the ways of the lowland noblemen and noblewomen, to prepare them for the prince’s arrival and choosing of his princess. Though the academy is difficult because of a strict teacher, Miri excels at learning and commerce; she even helps the village in trading with lowlanders, but is that enough to become Academy princess? Does she have what it takes to be chosen by a prince? Only time can tell as she deals with girls who wish just as much as her to be the prince’s bride-to-be, and learns that things and people are not always what they seem.
I love Shannon Hale’s writing, it’s so fluid and comfortable, and the message it send to it’s readers is warm and comforting. I loved her book so much that it only took me a couple of hours to finish the book!