Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

When my 9-year-old picked out Hamster Princess:  Harriet the Invincible at the library, I was skeptical.  Not only did it look young for her, it was pink and purple and sparkly and all but screamed “I’M REALLY GIRLY!”  at me.  I checked it out, however, and stashed it in my room to preview.

Doing so was an incredibly delightful surprise.

Harriet is a snarky, adventurous sort of princess, who despises her deportment lessons and receives news of her ‘Sleeping Beauty’ curse with glee.  If she can’t escape the curse, then the curse has to keep her alive until her twelfth birthday so that it can take effect, right?  Being invincible is all the excuse she needs to leave the castle and engage in all sorts of dangerous adventures, from ogre-fighting to cliff-jumping.  When her twelfth birthday comes around, however, the unexpected happens, and a new kind of adventure awaits Princess Harriet and Mumfrey, her trusty riding quail.

I got a serious kick out of this entire book.  It’s short and highly illustrated, making it a good fit for reluctant readers; it’s also almost unbelievably entertaining, and I love Harriet’s persistent argument that since she is a princess, anything she does must be considered princess-ly.  (Princess-y?  I’ve got a cold, and maybe that’s messing with my head, because the more I consider which one it ought to be, the more both of them look like nonsense.)  In short?  Even as my 9-year-old is panting with eagerness to get hold of this one, I’m looking forward to its sequel.

That says everything you need to know about this one.