Customer Reviews

The Fairy's Return (Princess Tales)

Robin is considered an imbecile in his family because he likes to tell jokes instead of making up words (like his two elder brothers Nat and Matt) or create poems (like his father Jake). He wants to be accepted -- a common theme in these stories -- but his relatives won't.

Robin stumbles upon Lark, the also-bird-named princess to the kingdom of Biddle. They hit it off because they treat each other as normal people. Unfortunately, Robin's a commoner, and the two are discouraged from meeting again, though we know they're destined to.

Robin has more of a personality than some of the other princes-to-be of the other Gail Carson Levine stories, and it's interesting to glimpse into his struggle. He likes her, he's not sure she likes him, he gets discouraged, starts to have hope, etc.

The subplots are not as enchanting as the other stories. King Humphrey has a speech impediment that causes him to harrumph every word. There is one scene where this is pretty funny because he's describing what he wants done while his scribe is attempting to translate it to English (Biddlish?). It's a bit much to read aloud, however.

On the other hand, the quests Robin must fulfill are absurdly funny, and listening to him work out how to build a ship that works as well on land as it does the sea is amusing.