01 May 2013

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom (The League of Princes #1)

Summary from Goodreads:
Prince Liam. Prince Frederic. Prince Duncan. Prince Gustav. You’ve never heard of them, have you? These are the princes who saved Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White, and Rapunzel, respectively, and yet, thanks to those lousy bards who wrote the tales, you likely know them only as Prince Charming. But all of this is about to change.

Rejected by their princesses and cast out of their castles, the princes stumble upon an evil plot that could endanger each of their kingdoms. Now it’s up to them to triumph over their various shortcomings, take on trolls, bandits, dragons, witches, and other assorted terrors, and become the heroes no one ever thought they could be.

Christopher Healy’s Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom is a completely original take on the world of fairy tales, the truth about what happens after “happily ever after.” It’s a must-have for middle grade readers who enjoy their fantasy adventures mixed with the humor of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. Witty black-and-white drawings by Todd Harris add to the fun.

Amidst all the worry that fairy tales are reductive and don't necessarily show strong women, there is the interesting point that most of the time the hero is just called Prince Charming.  The tale itself is known by the heroine's name, but the hero gets nary a name-check.  So Christopher Healy has imagined what it must be like for those teen-aged Prince Charmings.  Awkward, miscast, and occasionally mis-matched with their Princesses simply by twist of fate, they all find themselves on the road in an effort to untangle an evil plot and prove to their Princesses (and possibly, trade?) that they aren't any old flashes-in-the-pan.

I chowed this down during the readathon and loved it.  Definitely going to be a go-to book for kids and parents looking for recommendations.  Looking forward to the rest of the series.

Dear FTC: I won a prize pack of books during a previous readathon.  This ARC was one of them.

No comments:

Post a Comment