Once Upon a Marigold (2004)

My seven-year-old cousin and fellow lover-of-all-things-fairy, Natalie, convinced me to read this by reciting the cover blurb to me: "Part comedy, part love story, part everything-but-the-kitchen-sink." What fairy tale fan could resist that? Not this one!

I loved that the defining characteristics of the characters weren't their beauty or lack thereof. Chris is intelligent, kind, and loyal. He's also an inventor. He's the first in the kingdom to use p-mail (pigeon mail). Princess Marigold is a reader, also intelligent and kind, and very concerned with making sure that she becomes a good strong ruler of her kingdom. She even asks commoners' opinions on the qualities that a good ruler should have! Even the minor characters are generally defined by their personalities, good or bad. Looks really didn't come into play at all. I found that a little refreshing.

The story was a little predictable. We first meet Chris when he's a six-year-old runaway living in the woods. As he grows older, he starts to notice Princess Marigold, who he can watch as she reads on her terrace in the castle. He wants to be her friend, and he wants to know why she frequently looks unhappy. You can probably guess the general outline of the story, beginning to end, just from that. But there were still several surprises along the way that kept the story fresh.

Ed the troll might have been my favorite character. Oh, I really liked Chris and Marigold, but Ed made me laugh. He loves to use common sayings, but he can never get them right. Here's one: "But now that you have your act on the ball, you can do better...All you have to do is keep your shoulder to the grindstone and your nose to the wheel." Too funny! And he's working hard to break a certain fairy creature's monopoly. I won't say who, but that whole little subplot was really cute.

I'm not sure exactly what set the villain off at this point in time. That's probably the biggest thing that knocked this down a star. He or she (I won't say who!) has had years to act. Why now?

If you read the epilogue, there's a huge cliffhanger. I'll be picking up the next one. As Natalie would quote at me, "Part comedy, part tragedy, part two!" Again, who could resist? ( )

OH. MY. CUTENESS.

This book was awesome! And, okay, I DO happen to have a thing for cheesy young-adult romance fairy-tales, but still, it was really clever and totally adorable! And CLEAN. I wouldn't hesitate to read this book to an 8-year-old (or younger, if they were interested). It was predictable (I guessed who Christian was in the first chapter, but whatever... the goal of the book wasn't to be cryptic), but it was just so sweet and innocent and SO funny!

Okay, so it's about this 6-year-old boy, Christian, who runs away from home and ends up living with and being raised by a Troll, Edric (Ed) in a cave. The kid turns out to be quite nice and resourceful (i.e. he's an inventor). Ed realizes he's gotta raise the kid right, so he gets a book of etiquette, and teaches the kid out of that. But the best part is that Ed has like ZERO grasp of clichés, and is CONSTANTLY mixing them up (like, "I can see I'm beating my head against a dead horse" and "After all, what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the eager beaver.") Oh boy, those were great...

So 13 years later, Christian (sometimes Chris) is a strapping guy... haha... And he has this telescope, and has been (very innocently) admiring the pretty little brunette princess (Marigold, 17) whose balcony happens to face the cave... ;) In fact, he's so taken with her that he starts sending her messages via carrier pigeon. Heehee... But the pigeons can only hold a piece of paper big enough to hold 3 lines of text (and later 3 per side, I think), so they have these TINY conversations... It's REALLY cute. They become best friends, even though they've never met.

Then Christian and Ed decide he needs to go out on his own and experience the world, so he gets a job at the castle, and all sorts of craziness ensues... Marigold's mom is trying to hook her up with any eligible bachelor who will have her, and Christian is REALLY jealous... *cute!!* And it's really fun...

Anyway, it goes on from there, but I don't want to give TOO much away. I'm REALLY looking forward to [b:Twice Upon a Marigold|2430999|Twice Upon a Marigold (Upon a Marigold, #2)|Jean Ferris|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328833177s/2430999.jpg|2438187]... It looks really great, too! ( )

placeholder for the paperback version, which I own...

This book was SUPREMELY adorable, if a bit predictable. SUPER SUPER CUTE! I liked Ed a lot, especially how he is always mixing up turns of phrase. Hilarious! :) ( )

I LOVE this book! It has to be one of the best books I have ever read. The story is original and full of humor and quirks. The characters are believable and are easy to relate to. The story is fast paced and full of adventure. Plus it does a really good job of showing how everyone at some point struggles to find out who they really are and what they want out of life no matter of where in society they come from. It is not the normal rags to riches fairy tale and for that I like it even more. ( )

see http://www.sfsite.com/06a/om153.htm ( )