9. The Ordinary Princess
My aunt gave me this book when I was quite young and it's stayed on my shelf longer than anything except the
Chronicles of Narnia. I believe that she thought I would relate to the mousy little princess with too many freckles who was still special in her own right. (This is the aunt who is a family therapist, so there is often a double meaning to her taste in books.) The reason that I have read this many times since I first cracked it open is not because I bear an unfortunate resemblance to Princess Amy (Amethyst Alexandra Augusta Araminta Adelaide Aurelia Anne of Phantasmorania), but because it is the kind of fairy tale that I can believe in. Here is the (probably unwitting) forerunner of Merida. Here is the kind of clever clogs who would have inspired Hermione Granger. Amethyst Alexandra Augusta Araminta Adelaide Aurelia Anne is cursed by the evil witch Crustacea to be
ordinary, a fate worse than death. Instead of growing up with hair as black as night and skin as white as snow, she has a little bit of a piggy nose. She freckles at the mere mention of the word sun. On her epic quest, she gets grubby. Clearly, this is not Belle, who can get attacked by wolves and still have her hair be frizzless. This is not Cinderella, who is quietly lovely in her workaday rags. When faced with the prospect of her parents hiring a dragon so Amy can be a damsel in distress, Amy runs for it. Frankly, that's something any sane person would do and that kind of sanity doesn't often make an appearance in a princess story. She eventually makes her own way in the world, only to marry well to a handsome prince with similar values.
The Ordinary Princess is frankly a story that could have gone wrong in so many ways, but works out in the end. It is a short and delightful read.