Margi Preus
Author of Heart of a Samurai
About the Author
Image credit: Willow Glen
Series
Works by Margi Preus
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- USA
- Places of residence
- Duluth, Minnesota, USA
- Education
- Binghamton University
- Occupations
- children's book author
- Organizations
- The College of St. Scholastica, University of Minnesota Duluth
Members
Reviews
Lists
THE WAR ROOM (1)
Newbery Adjacent (1)
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 18
- Members
- 2,198
- Popularity
- #11,674
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 136
- ISBNs
- 110
- Languages
- 2
Astri is nothing like typical fairy tale princess, though. She lies, she cheats, she steals. We're used to seeing essential goodness in characters like her, so it's interesting that she's no angel. You will not believe how she escapes from the Goatman! It's crazy.
This story has an old fashioned feel to it and (like a lot of old fairy tales) it has both a hopeful side and a dark side. Astri's reality is a combination of painful, gritty realism and fantastical legend.
I thought the writing was splendid and the whole package seemed original and fresh to me (it's rare for me to read a children's book nowadays and not be immediately reminded of some other children's book, but this one has a flavor that stands out--if I had to compare it to something I'd probably say [b:Far Far Away|16030663|Far Far Away|Tom McNeal|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1366106300s/16030663.jpg|21800322] or maybe [b:Pipi Longstocking|19302|Pippi Longstocking|Astrid Lindgren|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388180714s/19302.jpg|2056462] meets [b:Out of the Dust|25346|Out of the Dust|Karen Hesse|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328867076s/25346.jpg|808243]).
My only criticism is that I was confused by the dream sequence at the end of the book. Maybe if I just read it over again it would be clearer to me, but I felt thrown off by it, like the rules of the story suddenly shifted and I was thrown off balance as a reader.
This will certainly be a challenging read for ages 9-11 because of the style and tone of the story. There are definitely parts that feel a little PG-13, e.g.