Of Mice and Magic

Fun! I do like Harriet. After she escaped her home at the end of the first book, she's dead bored - everyone's heard of her, and seems to be conspiring to keep her from having any adventures or fun (and she can't cliff-dive any more, since her curse is gone). She runs into an old fairy shrew, who gives her a quest (this is Harriet, so it's not quite that simple, but that's how it ends up) - the Twelve Dancing Princesses. Some lovely twists on the story, and a very Harriet solution to it all. And Harriet ends up with a reward that means a lot more to her than half a kingdom and a princess (what would she have done with a princess, after all?). Wilbur shows up again too, and is quite helpful. A great story. Are there more Harriets? I need show more to read all of Ursula Vernon/T. Kingfisher's stuff - they're all great! show less

Oh Harriet, I do love you so. So, after her original adventures, Harriet has successfully ended the curse on herself and the castle and things are back to normal.

Harriet is extremely bored.

She's also very annoyed that she can't go cliff-jumping anymore, now that she's no longer invincible. So, she sets out for adventure by offering to help out a kingdom that has a little problem with mysteriously dancing mice. The king turns out to be very strange, and things are much more complicated than some unsupervised evening dances, (not to mention the whole color-coding thing) but Harriet has a solution, even if things get a little.... iffy at times.

These are the best and I desperately want to start a summer program solely to read aloud to kids show more just so I can read these aloud.

" 'You can't go into another color room. If someone in blues goes into the pink room, they'd clash. The king would be very upset.' It occurred to Harriet that she was dealing with a very peculiar sort of mind."

"A Poncho of Invisibility is not quite as good as a Cloak of Invisibility, but they're cheaper and easier to sew."

"The paint was brilliant purple, the color of a radioactive grape."

Sigh. So completely satisfying. Harriet is unfailingly practical, has a sense of humor, and is determined to go about things her own way, never mind what anyone else thinks. While the story follows in a long line of fractured fairy tales, Vernon's unique style and wicked sense of snarky humor make it stand alone.

Verdict: It's awesome. Buy it now.

ISBN: 9780803739840; Published 2016 by Dial; Purchased for the library; Purchased for my personal collection show less

An old shrew sends Hamster Princess Harriet on a quest to break the curse of the 12 dancing mice princesses. Turns out the princesses are compelled to dance all night every evening to keep mole witch Molezelda's powers in play. That, and Molezelda is determined they all marry her 12 mole sons. The mouse king gives Harriet three nights to figure out what is going on; if she does, she gets half the kingdom and one of the princesses in marriage. (Well, that's how fairy tales work.) Harriet, with cheer and gumption takes on the challenge. The wit and humor flies fast and furious ("You keep being so sharp, you're liable to cut yourself"); adults reading this aloud to their kids will get a kick out of it, too.

Harriet is sent on a quest to help twelve mice princesses who are dancing their shoes off every night. I enjoyed this even more than Harriet the Invincible -- Harriet is practical, unsentimental and bit bossy, which is an asset when it comes to helping other princesses deal with magical curses.

[...] and they were going through an immense amount of shoes.
The royal shoemakers were summoned and threatened with terrible punishments for making substandard footwear, but the shoemakers had sterling reputations and produced several dozen professional ballerinas who testified at their trial that these were very fine shoes indeed. The fault did not lie in the shoes.
And if the shoes were not at fault, that meant the princesses were dancing show more their shoes off every night. show less

Harriet is bored - and that's more dangerous than dragons. Fortunately, she runs into a fairy shrew who gives her a quest: Harriet must figure out where the twelve dancing mouse princesses go each night, and how to break the spell that compels them. (It turns out the spell was placed on them by a mole witch with twelve sons.) Harriet, of course, is victorious, with the help of her faithful riding quail Mumfrey and her friend Wilbur, a prince who's working as a stable boy in the mouse kingdom.

Just as clever and subversive as the first one!

Harriet's adventures continue to be hilarious and empowering -- this time she takes on the 12 dancing princesses and their curse. The extra-organizational king and Molewitch are formidable foes, but Harriet discovers their weaknesses, and refuses to let other princesses be imprisoned by their fates.

Super cute chapter book retelling the Twelve Dancing Princesses fairy tale. Mumfrey the Battle Quail was one of the highlights of this book for me, though I really enjoyed the whole thing. It's a very clever book with great illustrations.