Day 9: A book you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

 The crown prince's bride will come from Mt. Eskel, the small mountain village where Miri (dainty, petite and 14) lives with her widower father and sister.  Miri is too small and frail to work in the quarries, so she feels as though she doesn't help out much. 

In order for the crown prince to choose a bride, many of the girls are to attend an academy in order to learn to be a princess.  And Miri learns many, many things about herself and how she, in her own way, can help her family. 

Okay... seriously.  Where do I even begin with this book?  I was teaching 7th grade, and my mom, who is a former elementary school librarian/media person, called and told me she had gone to a book fair and bought some books for my classroom library. 

I was pretty excited, and when she mentioned this title, we discussed it and said it was probably good chick lit so that way the girls would want to read some of the books that I had. 

Seriously, though, I was blown out of the water with this book.  When I hear "Princess", in any phrase, I think Disney, and well, this was not Disney.  The teacher of the academy was a strict, witchy lady who looked down on the girls for their lack of education.  And Miri manages to learn so much about herself.  She doesn't want to end up with the prince, but she wants to be the top of the class to prove she can.  And in the very end, Miri not only helps save the academy from some terrible people (bandits), but she also manages to help save her village and nab the guy that she has liked for a long while.  This girl knows how to get it done!   This book completely surprised me.  I didn't think that I would like it, but I tried it, and well, I am happy to say that it's a book that I would recommend to all my students to read (especially the girls).