Gail Carson Levine is one of my favorite authors. Her book series The Princess Tales are short, sweet, and highly entertaining. Now that she has finished the series, they've been combines into one normal-sized book. Maybe I should start a series, talking about each tale - one a day.
I guess I'll decide tomorrow if I want to continue it or not. But first up in the series is the story The Fairy's Mistake.
Some of you may have heard of the old fairy tale about the fairy who blessed a sweet young girl with the ability to speak precious gems, and cursed the girl's rude sister to speak snakes and bugs. That's what this story is based on, but with a twist.
The two girls are twins. Myrtle is the rude one, and Rosella is the kind one. While it's true that at first the fairy seemed to have given perfectly just rewards, things start unravel rather quickly.
Rosella agrees to marry the prince who falls in love with her ability to create riches, but everyone in his castle (especially the prince himself) not only won't let her not speak, but won't listen to a word she says. Myrtle and her mother nearly get into an argument, but just as Myrtle begins to speak, her mother fearfully apologizes, giving Myrtle an idea.
So Rosella is forced to speak but given no real say in anything, and her prince's greed eventually makes her sick - literally, and very dangerously. Meanwhile, Myrtle marches around town and puts together a party for herself. A few words in each place was enough to buy Myrtle attendance and gifts from everyone in town.
You can imagine that the fairy who caused all this is getting very anxious. When Rosella heals too slowly for the fairy's liking, the fairy finally decides it's way past interfering time.
How does it happen? Read the book and find out! In the end, everyone gets what they want - heroes and antagonists alike.
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