This was fun! It inverts all the gender assumptions of traditional fantasy narratives. However, I will say that I was surprised to see that it is geared to 7-10 year-olds. I would have pegged the target audience as somewhat older than that. This adult loved it!

Adding to the Manga/Graphic Novel/Comics Bookbox 2023.

Received in the Manga/Graphic Novel/Comics Bookbox 2023.

I will release this back into the box.

Released in the Manga/Graphic Novel/Comics Bookbox 2023.

Please enjoy!

I'm claiming this from the bookbox. Looks like fun! (The subtitle is "Save Yourself," good advice there.)

Later: I'd agree that this seems more like a middle-school story than grades 4-6 - though perhaps the rating's more on vocabulary level than content? Or maybe I just think that because Adrienne is 16 when she's - um, well, drugged by her mother and hauled away to that tower, despite her having said from childhood that she didn't want any such thing. Parental drugging and kidnapping, yay?

Anyway. This is the first volume of collected comic books about Princess Adrienne, a young woman who, unhappy at the whole “princesses must be immured in towers for princes to find and rescue” thing, befriends her own guardian dragon, finds a sword under her bed (!), breaks out of her tower, and sets out to rescue her six sisters, each hidden away elsewhere. [We find out where that sword came from soon enough; turns out Adrienne's parents are even more horrible than they already seemed. Yeesh!]

The nastiness of the royal family notwithstanding, the story is quite fun, with lots of quips, and with little details in the artwork hinting at things like the fates of the unsuccessful suitors (that dragon doesn't mess around). And I loved the bit where she meets Bedelia, the local blacksmith (technically only an assistant but she actually does all the work) and finds her crafting armor for women warriors, of the chainmail-bikini type. (The artwork clearly shows outfits resembling Wonder Woman’s and Xena’s, as well as the aforementioned chainmail bikini. “Doesn’t it… bind?”) That chapter's titled "On Sexism in the Armor Industry," so, yeah!

I did enjoy the story very much, and now want to look out for more books in the series; this one ends on a clear "and the adventure continues" note.

[There's a TV Tropes page on the series, with some interesting tidbits.]

I left this book in the Little Free Library on this rainy day; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in NH here.]

Released for:

** 2024 May Royalty challenge **

** 2024 Keep Them Moving challenge. **