The Thirteenth Princess

After two weighty books—The Speckled Monster was long and God’s Demon dragged a bit—I was ready for something light and fluffy. How better to do that than to return to my roots with a good old-fashioned fairy tale retelling?

I’m amazed that Zahler managed to pull this off! I’ve always thought The Twelve Dancing Princesses must be a hard one to redo given the vast assortment of characters to keep track of—and yeah, the sisters didn’t all have distinct personalities, but Zahler did a remarkable job getting us to follow a few and appreciate the others. Though I can’t say I was very appreciative of the fact that the sisters’ names all started with A. Going alphabetically (maybe with twins sharing a first letter) would have show more been a huge help for keeping everyone straight and figuring out quickly where they fell in birth order.

Overall, it’s an enchanting book, one that would probably have been a favorite when I was in fourth or fifth grade. The idea of the one daughter being set aside as a servant surrounded by a sprawling family is actually one that I turned to relatively frequently when I was playing with dolls, animals, and Legos. (I have no idea why!) The description of the palace and surrounding land is also something I might have imagined—so maybe part of the reason I found this book so lovely is that it reminded me of my own childhood imagination. Most of the book had the same childhood innocence, the kind of detachment from reality/not totally consistent logic that is harder to get away with in even young adult books.

So with that said, the one thing that caught me up a bit was that this book had some very adult moments. It’s advertised as being for 8 to 12 year olds, but there are intimations of bastard children that ruin the lives of the mothers while the fathers get off the hook (69), “stopping at kissing” (126), and pedophilia with a side of rape (128). I’m trying to imagine an 8-year-old asking me why these two moments in the book are important, and what I would say—and it’s not easy. Neither moment is necessary, but their presence threw long shadows on my enjoyment of the rest of the book. With such adult themes, it was harder for me to make the logical allowances that I normally give for children’s books.

Yeesh, these reviews always end up being about the things I don’t like, don’t they? But seriously, all in hall, The Thirteenth Princess was absolutely charming and I would definitely recommend it to fellow lovers of fairytale retellings, particularly to those who like Gail Carson Levine and Donna Jo Napoli.

Quote Roundup

34) As an adult, I was a bit uncomfortable with how Zita’a older sisters treated her like a pet rather than a person, pressuring her into things she was uncomfortable with, like piercing her ears, so that she could be a “real” princess. This was another subtly dark theme, really, the Marie-Antoinette-ish obliviousness the sisters had for the situation of those in lower stations—stealing food from the cook even though it got the cook into trouble with the king (25) and making Zita a lavishly beautiful blanket that she will have to hid from other servants (41).

43) Props to the author for having the oldest daughter want to rule in her own right. There were some feminist issues in this book, but this at least was refreshing.

65-66) “After your father banished magic, she did not come to see me anymore. She wanted to much to please him—it was her undoing.”
Okay, feminist points for this message: don’t live only for your husband.

86) Boys were so proud—you always had to let them think they were good at things.
Aaaaaand feminist points canceled out for a comment that could have easily applied to both sexes. Deal with it, dudes

223) Zita magically recovers from years of psychological trauma.

232) I was a bit disappointed by Zita’s end-of-book transformation. I was hoping she’d be happy somewhere between royalty and peasantship.

241) I was also super disappointed that Zita, a 12-year-old girl, ended up with a love interest. Sheesh, at least give them one or two more years for puberty to set in!
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Don't you just loooove that cover? I was delighted to discover, when I finally cracked it, that there's a delightful silhouette illustration on the inside!

In this retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, we hear the story from the perspective of Zita, the youngest and unknown princess, who was banished to the servant's quarters when she was born and her mother died. Zita is delighted to discover she has sisters, but can't help being hurt and frightened by her father's attitude towards her. And then her sisters begin to weaken and only Zita sees that their shoes are worn and an enchantment is at work....

Verdict: This is a fresh and enjoyable fantasy with enough of the original fairy tale to steady the plot but plenty of show more characterization and new elements to hook the reader. I did feel that the dialogue was a bit stilted and the language overly romantic and heavy in spots, although the latter is just my personal preference. I added this to the library's collection last month and it's been quite popular, zipping on and off the new shelf. I recommend it if you have fans of light fantasy such as Kate Coombs, Jessica Day George, and Victoria Hanley.

ISBN: 0061824984; Published February 2010 by HarperCollins; ARC provided by publisher at ALA show less

Seems light, tropey, and inconsequential for most of way, but then, oh, the climax, the answer to the mystery... that was something else. The epilogue seemed a little long to me, but probably pleases the target audience. I listened to the audio-book and it was well-done, if perhaps a little over-acted.

Zita is not an ordinary servant girl--she's the thirteenth daughter of a king who wanted only sons. When she was born, Zita's father banished her to the servants' quarters to work in the kitchens, where she can only communicate with her royal sisters in secret. Then, after Zita's twelfth birthday, the princesses all fall mysteriously ill. The only clue is their strangely worn and tattered shoes. With the help of her friends--Breckin the stable boy, Babette the witch, and Milek the soldier--Zita follows her bewitched sisters into a magical world of endless dancing and dreams. But something more sinister is afoot

This retelling of the fairy tale "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" is a fun read without a lot of substance. Zita, the thirteenth daughter of a king, is shunned by her father and made to live as a servant in her own house. When her older sisters are enslaved by a mysterious enchantment, Zita, her stable-boy friend Breckin, and a mysterious old lady who lives in the forest work together to discover and overturn the enchantment. The plot drags at times, and the characters are not as well-developed as they could be. Young readers who are addicted to fairy tale retellings will probably enjoy this, though it's not on par with Gail Carson Levine or Robin McKinley's work.

The Thirteenth Princess, a The Twelve Dancing Princesses fairy tale retelling, introduces one more princess to the story: Zita, she’s the youngest of the bunch, but was sent to live with the servants because the king blames her for the loss of his queen, who died after giving birth. Zita grows up as a simple kitchen maid until the day she learns the truth and sets her mind into getting to know her sisters, and to be friends with them. Easy task, since the princesses are all kindhearted souls who want the same thing. So in this version of the story, instead of just a soldier, Zita too will be helping the princesses break the curse which makes them dance night after night until dawn, ruining their good slippers in the process.

I picked show more up this book first, because I am a fairy tale retelling nut, and second, because this one sounded like it had something new to tell, with one more princess who’s an outcast, shunned by her father and living in the castle as a servant, but by half of it, I realized that maybe I’ve already exceeded my quota of The Twelve Dancing Princesses retellings and spin-offs, because to be completely honest I soon found myself bored with this reading. It starts off okay, with Zita going about her servant life, and contrary to what I expected, she’s actually a happy young girl, she has friends, loves to spend time outside and to go for long walks in the forest, and even gets herself a special (boy)friend later, Breckin. Then she learns about her true identity, starts to get along with her sisters, and befriends the old witch living in the forest, and I thought this is it, the story is finally kicking off, and it is going to wow me, very soon…anytime now…just a few more pages…and it never happened. It takes so long for the princesses to start behaving in an unusual manner, leading Zita to investigate their night affairs, that until it happens I couldn’t really tell this was a Twelve Dancing Princesses retelling -which could have been a good thing since I wanted something new and fresh, but somehow it wasn’t, and the actual fairy tale part brought nothing of truly unique.

Something I did enjoy in this book were the few scenes with Zita and the king. I mean, he rejected his daughter when she was a newborn, blaming her for an outrageous thing, so I thought he was going to be this incredibly cruel and bitter man, who would bring the castle down if Zita as much as misplaced a candlestick, but no, it was both heartbreaking and heartwarming to watch them interact.

So, summing-up: I can recommend this one as a cute little fairy tale book to those who unlike me, don’t read them on a regular basis, and thus don’t demand new points of view constantly. But I certainly can’t recommend it to those who do demand this and much, much more. And then again, maybe I just need to give The Twelve Dancing Princesses a deserved rest.
http://cuidadocomodalmata.wordpress.com/2011/02/04/the-thirteenth-princess/ show less

I don't think I've ever actually read the tale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, though I'm sure I've heard of it. I really enjoyed this story about those twelve sisters, told through the eyes of a thirteenth sister who is banished to the servants wing because her mother died in having her and her father never got a son and heir.

The story was well told; the characters fleshed out and the details all fit together nicely in the end. The kind of happily ever after that makes you sigh at the end as you turn the last page and close the cover.