The Wide-Awake Princess [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

I finished The Wide Awake Princess yesterday and its such a wonderful retelling of Sleeping Beauty. Gwen (Sleeping Beauty) falls asleep after pricking her finger on her 16th birthday. Her younger sister Annie and a handsome young gaurd Liam go on a quest to find Gwens true love to wake her up. Only problem is they aren't sure which prince is Gwens true love. On their travels they encounter the bear from Snow White and Rose Red and at one point Annie is locked up in Rapunzels tower and Rapunzel is gone. Anyway I'm not going to tell you any more. If you like fairytales and if you like rewritten fairytales and books written by E.D.Baker you'll love this book. I think this book is so good that it deserves a sequel because I want to know whether Gwen and Annie get married to their true loves and get embroiled into more adventures. E.D. Baker you rock!!!!!!

We all know the story of Gwen: When she was born, her parents made a little mistake with the guest list, which led to the ticking off of a bad fairy, which led to the prick her finger on a spinning wheel and sleep for 100 years curse. Such a curse adds a lot of stress, not to mention all the work involved in keeping a kingdom spinning-wheel free. So when Annie was born, her parents begged a good fairy to find a way to protect their second daughter from similar curses. With a wave of her wand, the good fairy makes Annie immune to magic. Since this also has the effect of dampening all magic used around Annie, her parents are a little put out when their own magically-enhanced beauty and charms fade whenever Annie is around. Still, she's safe, and as long as she stands far away from her family, Annie's gift has little effect.

Life is fairly ho-hum for Annie until Gwen manages to get her hands on a spinning wheel on her 16th birthday and the kingdom-sleeps-for-100-years curse is set in motion. Everyone in the castle drops instantly into sleep, all except, of course, Annie. Never one to wait around for someone else to fix things for her, Annie sets out on a mission to find a prince to kiss her sister and end the curse. But which prince is her sister's true love? There's no way of knowing, so Annie sends every prince she finds back to her family's castle. Every prince she finds, however, seems to already be embroiled in his own quest or sticky situation, so Annie must first help with these various deeds and debacles.

I really enjoyed this story! Annie is a great character from start to finish and would make a good role model for the intended audience. She's kind, has a good sense of humor, does things for herself, is smart, and is still girly. Too often authors seem to think that the only way to make a strong female character is to make her this tough, hard-hearted warrior or tomboy. Annie manages to be a strong girl while still remaining feminine and harboring a crush on her body guard/companion.

Liam (the bodyguard) is also a strong and admirable character in his own right. This is appreciated, as another pitfall authors often fall into when making strong female characters is diminishing the male characters to accomplish a false strength-by-comparison. He's also a pretty likable guy. The other characters were less fleshed out and more caricatures, but they were appropriately humorous, likable, despicable, annoying, etc.

As a fairy tale retelling, The Wide-Awake Princess excels. The original elements of a number of fairy tales are woven together in a way that both pays homage to the original tales while also turning them on their heads in fun an inventive ways. Annie's ability to deflect and dampen magic is an ingenious twist that made for countless entertaining scenes and possibilities. Given how pervasive magic is in fantasy and fairy tale stories, these scenes felt especially fresh and humorous. For fans of humorous fractured fairy tales, fairy tale retellings, off-beat princesses, and light fantasy, The Wide-Awake Princess is a must have on the To Be Read list.

It's not easy being Sleeping Beauty's younger sister. While her big sister received all the faerie blessings of Charm, Grace, and Beauty (and the curse to go with it), Princess Annie received only one gift: that of total magic immunity: "From this day on, no magic shall touch you or bring you to harm. You'll have to survive on your natural charm."

Fortunately, Annie's hardworking and resourceful and knows how to use her magic nullification talents to the fullest. But curses are curses, and Annie's ultimately left on her own when the rest of her family (along with the rest of the castle's inhabitants) are put to sleep by the spinning wheel curse. How will she fare against forests of gingerbread witches and mischievous faeries? Will she manage to find her sister's true love and break the curse? And of course there's that teeny-tiny little chance that she just might find someone special herself.

This book is a fun read and appropriate for both early readers and older kids. My seven year old (who reads around the 4th grade level) has really enjoyed it; a pair of nine year old twins (average readers) have asked repeatedly for me to read it aloud; and even my ten year old son has borrowed it - mostly for the fun of the fairy tale send ups. (Sorry, Prince - the Princess doesn't need rescuing from the hideous ogre - she just likes him better than you.) It's fairly well written, simple enough to follow, and fun enough for reluctant readers to want to continue with.

For the sake of being comprehensive, there are a few scary moments (a kelpie and the gingerbread witch) and references to alcohol (a prince who's had too much ale and needs to be sobered up). The afore mentioned prince also had a pair of barmaids on his knee - think Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. Nothing is explicit or worse than you'll find in the Brother's Grimm.

Annie's a good role model - brave, creative, responsible - without coming off as a man hater. And while some of the princes are drunken, self-absorbed louts, mostly they're just human - some better than others, and most just a *little* too dependent on their own magically given talents. On the whole, it's a nice mix, with obviously good and bad examples and a general sense that hard work and self sacrifice are worth more than any number of magical gifts.