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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Recommend, March 14, 2010
My 9 year old, who is a strong and voracious reader thoroughly enjoyed this novel. It has a strong storyline and interesting characters that really hold the child's attention. Her older teen sisters read and enjoyed the book too. This is one of those novels that you're thrilled to stumble upon because it is entertaining and very well written with classic good vs evil conflicts unlike so many of the dumbed-down, bizarre children's novels that are in the market today. Kudos to the author on a book well written.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Review from The Neverending Shelf, March 7, 2010
The Thirteenth Princess is a captivating rethinking of The Twelve Dancing Princesses tale. Zahler skillfully combines the old fairy tale with new material to make the story seem fresh. Think you know the tale of The Twelve Dancing Princesses? Well, think again.
From the get go, this novel held my attention with its flowing writing and detailed scenery. I could easily picture this breathtaking world that Zahler has created. The plot flowed along at a nice even pace with plenty of interesting characters sprinkled in. Zita is not your average servant, she is actually the 13th daughter of the King who in a fit of rage banished her to live with the servants. Upon her seventh birthday, Zita uncovers the secret truth behind her birthday.
Zita is a lively character filled with curiosity and love. She loves the servants, her new found sisters, and even had an appreciation for the father that banished her. To paraphrase a few characters, she has the best of both worlds. She understands what it means to be a servant, yet has the possibly to truly be a princess. In contrast to Zita are her twelve sisters. While the whole of them play a significant role in the overall plot, I found it very hard to distinguish each from one another. I am sure that every single one of them having a name that begins with "A" does not help much. I applaud Zahler for attempting to give each of the twelve sisters a certain characteristic to help identify them, but in the end, this did not help me too much. Many of them just blend into the background, never to be heard from again.
While Zita's world is fully explored, the world of the twelve dancing princesses does not get the same treatment. The novel focuses mainly on Zita, her life, and her attempt to rescue her sisters. Personally, I enjoyed Zahler's descriptions; however, I wish there had been more. The discovery of this world and its happenings take place later in the novel, and seem almost rushed.
Although, I wish a few things had been a bit different, this is a highly enjoyable tale for the fairy tale lovers of all ages. Zahler offers readers a unique take on a sometimes otherwise flat fairy tale. This is a wonderful novel for middle school readers, and for those who enjoy reads with a pinch of magic, love, and discovery.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Zita Saves the Day - Or the Night!, February 6, 2010
In this retelling of the classic tale, "The Twelve Dancing Princesses," Diane Zahler imagines a king who is increasingly angry with his wife for giving him daughters. When she dies in childbirth bearing a thirteenth daughter, he banishes the newborn to the castle kitchens in his rage. At seven, sort-of servant Zita learns she is sister to the princesses and daughter to the king. She doesn't bemoan her lot, but she does sneak around behind her father's back befriending her lovely older siblings. Happily, the older girls are very willing to take her under their wings. Zita also befriends a stable boy named Breckin whose brother is a soldier (aha!).
It isn't until she is older that Zita begins to worry that her sisters might be under a spell. For one thing, the twelve princesses don't understand themselves why whenever suitors come to call, they are unable to speak. Thus they all remain unmarried. Then Zita's sisters begin to appear weary and sickly, and their shoes start turning up with the soles worn through every morning.
With Breckin's assistance, Zita investigates her sisters' troubles; she also discovers a helpful witch living in hiding in the woods. (The king has banned magic from the kingdom, or so he thinks.) But someone is watching Zita, and she still hasn't figured out who is behind the malevolent spells. She even worries that the king himself has done this terrible thing to his daughters. Of course, our heroine eventually discovers the truth and saves her sisters.
Zahler's personable retelling offers readers a nice build-up of suspense. I like the author's vision of a castle on a lake, which starts out as a romantic gift along the lines of the Taj Majal and then literally gets moldy. Zita is an appealing main character and first-person narrator, while Breckin and the witch Babette bring freshness to the plot. Breckin further provides Zita with a younger, parallel version of the story's key romance. In fact, even the king has a romance, since the tragic history of his great love for the deceased queen influences the plot in many ways. About the only detail I found distracting was the ease with which Zita and Breckin learned to become invisible. Otherwise, The Thirteenth Princess is a hopeful and magical reinvention of the story of the twelve dancing princesses--plus one.
Note for Worried Parents: The book mentions the king's "dalliances" in his younger years and makes reference to unwed mothers among the castle servants. Some readers may also be bothered by the king's rejection of his youngest daughter, though this is later softened a bit.
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