Princess Sonora and the Long Sleep

Oh DEAR. I hated this with a passion. The plot was a perfectly good idea and I do like subverted fairytales. But if you are going to have a princess given the gift of superior intelligence it is a good idea to have that intelligence on show - not cod folk remedies and aphorisms that MAKE NO SENSE. It made Princess Sonora completely unlikeable, a terrible thing in a fairy-tale heroine and the Prince who rescued her an idiot.

Oh DEAR. I hated this with a passion. The plot was a perfectly good idea and I do like subverted fairytales. But if you are going to have a princess given the gift of superior intelligence it is a good idea to have that intelligence on show - not cod folk remedies and aphorisms that MAKE NO SENSE. It made Princess Sonora completely unlikeable, a terrible thing in a fairy-tale heroine and the Prince who rescued her an idiot.

A twist on the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. The fairies at Princess Sonora's naming ceremony each try to outdo one another, and she becomes not only smart but ten times smarter than anyone else. This makes for a very unusual baby and child. How she, and her parents, deals with the vindictive fairy gift that she will prick her finger on a spindle and sleep for 100 years keeps the reader engaged and highly entertained.

Summary:
This story is almost the same as the movie Sleeping Beauty. A baby princess, Sonora, has been cursed by a bitter fairy. The curse says that Sonora will prick her finger on a spindle and die. Fortunately, another fairy has given Sonora a gift. Instead of dying, she will fall asleep along with the rest of the castle until a price comes to kiss her. One day, this comes to be and Sonora picks her finger on her mother's spindle.

Personal reaction:
I find that this book would be more interesting to young girls than young boys. I wouldn't recommend it for a classroom read.

Classroom extension ideas:
1. Have the class try to build a small spindle out of pieces of wood.
2. Have the class create alternate endings for the story.

This book is about a princess that was born to be the smartest person the in world. When she was born one of the fairies that give powers to the new born, was mad because the princess’s mom and dad didn’t invite the fairy. So the fairy gave the princess a spell saying that if she was poked by a needle or anything sharp she will fall asleep forever until a prince kisses her. So about 100 years goes by and a prince goes to her castle, because he wanted to know why the goats fur was fallen off and stuff. So he kisses the princess and then she wakes up and he wants to marry her, but he couldn’t at first because she was suppose to marry someone else, but then she ends up marrying the guy that kissed her.

This story is about a baby named sonora who is given many gifts from faries, but one fariy was not invited and put a horrible curse upon her before the last fairy gave her own gift. The curse said that one day she would prick her finger on a spindle and die. When the last fairy bestowed her gift she changed the other fairy's curse, so that snora and the whole castle would mearly fall asleep and one day a prince would find her and she would be awaken by his kiss. One of her gifts was brilliance, she was ten times smarter then every human, but the people were intimidated by that. One day when she was seventeen she heard her mother screem and ran down the hall towards her, but her mother was carining a spindle and she pricked her finger show more and fell asleep. Years went by and the only person how knew of the sleeping castle was a sphered who passed down the secret to his children. One day in a neiboring kingdom an incident acured and all the shepherds went to talk. The sheep were losing there wool the sepherd said that sonora would know. A very curios prince herd that and went and searched for the place. He found his way in and kissed her. Sonora was nevery lonely again. show less

Great retelling!