Paul's Books #5084

I loved reading this book! What a great story of courage and strength. I think this the Conversation Lesson was fun: "Repeat his name. Ask questions. Make observations, not judgments. Return the conversation to him. If you want to impress someone, act as though they are your better!"
I would love to be a conversationalist who followed these wise rules!

This book is reserved for the Newbery Medal bookring and will be traveling first to dancing-dog!
I hope everyone enjoys this book!

Book has arrived safe and sound with The Wanderer - thanks!

Another great book with a strong female character! - I wish I had read more of these kind of books when I was growing up (instead I read Black Stallion books & the occasional Nancy Drew). I enjoyed reading the "rules" the academy taught - as tostle mentioned, the rules of conversation and also the rules of diplomacy. Of course the girls had opportunities to demonstrate their expertise in both. I liked the attempt by the author to show diversity of personality among the girls although I didn't really get enough on some of the characters to differentiate them well (Esa, Liana). There were also some between-the-lines lessons on prejudice and generalizations between the Mt. Eskel people and the lowlanders. And the wonderful message that you have to believe in yourself. A lovely book - thanks for sharing this.

I am going to hold on to this & The Wanderer until I hear from knitwit about the books she has for me, that way she won't be swamped with Newbury Medal books all at once. :D

Mailed Oct 3 to knitwit

Arrived on Tuesday, 7 October. Like it's traveling companion, it will be read in as timely a fashion as I can manage. I've got a ton of stuff to do for school but I do manage to read a little for pleasure each day. I just don't get through too many free reading books right now! thanks for sharing.

Another great example of a book I never would have read had it not been for BookCrossing! The title is so girlie that I would have passed the book by. But it was a great book even with the marry-the-prince angle. I'm glad Miri will get her academy on the mountain and stay with her family

In the mail to spacedog once I have an address.

Spacedog has asked to be skipped for now so the books are on their way to Hawaii today!

Well, media mail took the whole 3 weeks I predicted, but the books finally got here today!

This one has a banged-up corner (looks like it got wet), but it's still perfectly readable.

I'd never heard of this book, but I like the cover art. The little girls make me think of a chain of paper dolls.

I swear I saw a "Princess Academy" float in the Macy's parade on Thursday, but I wasn't paying attention at the beginning so I don't know if there's a connection.

This was a fun read: I love the description of the prince doing "a stunning impression of a stone column." As previously mentioned the rules of conversation & diplomacy were interesting to read and nicely worked into the story.

Thanks for sharing this - yet another example of a book I might never have read if it weren't for Bookcrossing!

I'll hang on to this until I read the other book traveling with it, then send them both to the next person in the ring.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Mailing to spacedog. :)

got today. thanks. prob. won't finish both books until over the holidays.

i enjoyed this book as very light fantasy fiction, but having read tons of these coming of age fantasy stories this one really didn't impress me much at all, particularly because of its fairly shallow plot. the growth of the main character is handled well, though (although i didn't find her to be particularly likable), and the last few sections were rather touching. the world hale creates feel very real, and it's too bad it doesn't seem she's revisited it (yet?) in any of her subsequent novels. all in all really pales in comparison to classics like the prydain chronicles, but for the generation of little girls dying to be a princess this is a nice contrast to the fluffier disney stuff.

This book arrived home and will be placed on PaulsBooks bookshelf for future readers!