Princess Academy

Well, I've been doing some catch-up reading on Newbery Mock Award Winners of 2006. For a list of possible winners - go here, and for Newbery requirements - check here. (It seems like my new co-workers have read everything! Geez, intimidating much?) Anyway, I took home Princess Academy by Shannon Hale (who also wrote Goose Girl, which is "supposed" to be good...) to read over my three day weekend, and now I feel totally ripped off. I feel jipped of a day, that is how bad this book is.

Arrgg. I despise enjoying the beginning of a book and then hating loathing the conclusion. It seems almost like false advertising to me - thanks a lot Shannon Hale. This book starts out with so much potential, being a slightly fantastical and slightly feminist portrayal of a mountain culture. It goes into great detail outlining the language and lifestyle of this created world, and continues with a decent/ good plot up to about 3/4's of the way into it. By that time, the reader is kinda stuck. Do you finish and risk further disappointment simply because you are already so close to the end? Or do you throw the book across the room and forget about it? Silly Suzy, I kept reading. So without going into immense detail (I am prone to drag things way out...), let's just say that this book, designed to highlight the importance of family and education, ends up glorifying being a liar and a cheat. It takes multiple (and probably unintentional) stabs at religion. It was also just plain random, sometimes. (And I'm not even going to bother backing up my blanket statements of hatred for this book, because I am just plain bored with it at this point! So I figured I'd save all of my readers a little bit of time to read something of better quality.)

So if you are one of the lucky people to have spent time with this book, congratulations. As a children's librarian, this will not be on my list of recommends.