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3.36 AVERAGE
3.36 AVERAGE
3.75 stars
Some mixed feelings about the last few chapters, but overall this was really good!
CW: References to hunting and animal death, grief
Some mixed feelings about the last few chapters, but overall this was really good!
CW: References to hunting and animal death, grief
Cathryn Constable has a rare and extraordinary imagination which will enchant young girls (and much older ones) all over the world. They won't be able to help falling in love with Sophie Smith and the magical, snowy, icy, sparkling, strange and beautiful Russia she finds herself in. The book opens with Sophie's haunting dream memory of her father which sings its way through the story, and the courage Sophie has to muster to conquer the difficulties she faces is convincing and skilfully written.
There are scenes that make you think and scenes that make you wonder; scenes that make you fear for Sophie and scenes that make you cheer her on. And the magical story is, from time to time, brought back to reality by the humour, real friendship and occasional rivalry between the three utterly believable ordinary schoolgirls who find themselves in an extraordinary world.
I am far older than the readers this book has been written for, but it is testament to Constable's imagination that her story caught my imagination and held my attention. I only wish I were ten because when I was it took me days to return to the ordinary world from the world of a book as good as this one.
There are scenes that make you think and scenes that make you wonder; scenes that make you fear for Sophie and scenes that make you cheer her on. And the magical story is, from time to time, brought back to reality by the humour, real friendship and occasional rivalry between the three utterly believable ordinary schoolgirls who find themselves in an extraordinary world.
I am far older than the readers this book has been written for, but it is testament to Constable's imagination that her story caught my imagination and held my attention. I only wish I were ten because when I was it took me days to return to the ordinary world from the world of a book as good as this one.
Reading a fantasy novel set in the middle of a Russian winter complete with snowy forests and fur capes was an excellent way to cope with a heat wave. Looks like I need another one to get through the next few days. Charming story
The Wolf Princess is the story of an girl named Sophie and her school friends Delphine and Marianne. They are selected from their peers to go on a special trip to St.Petersberg, Russia at the invitation of a mysterious woman who visits the school one day. This is a dream come true for Sophie who has always been enamored with Russia and doesn't usually get to attend the more exclusive school trips because she is a charity student at the school. Sophie's parents are both gone and she lives with a family friend Rosemary who agreed to take her in after her father's death several years before the beginning of this story. It is because of the stories her father would tell her when she was little that inspired Sophie's fascination with Russia.
Once the girls get to St.Petersberg everything seems normal until they are left by their guardian on a train headed away from the city. They are then left on an old abandoned train depot until they are picked up by Ivan the conductor of a large white train. It is from him they learn that they are going to the Volkonsky estate to meet Princess Anna Volkonska. There the girls learn about the Volkonsky family's tragic past and the princess's plans for the estate and just how the girl's fit into that plan.
I picked up this book at Half-Price books the other week along with The Gathering Storm (Katerina, #1) by Robin Bridges another book about Russia. I think I was unintentionally going for a Russian/wintery reading vibe so, I was considering comparing the two books when I finished reading both, but after this book I don't think I will.
I went into this hoping for a sort of modernized Snow Queenish story, since the synopsis on the back of my book told of an ambiguously good princess in a palace in the middle of nowhere in snowy Russia and she lures children there. Also magic and wolves tie in somehow. This is obviously not what happens if you've read my above summary of the book.
I don't think the premise for the story was awful. Sure most of it has been done before and better, but for it's intended age demographic (4th-7th grade it says on the back of my book) it is fine. Ordinary girl discovers something extraordinary; I'm sure many kids that age can relate. My problem with this book is the way it is written. The writing is amateur and does not flow well. Often scenes that should be easy to follow are made confusing by the ambiguous writing. Often I would pause while reading because I was having trouble figuring out what the characters were doing in relation to each other in a scene. For example the following excerpt is from when I first really noticed how much of a distraction it is:
(The girls have just been dumped on the abandoned train station and Sophie and Marianne don't know where Delphine is at.)
"Delphine" she yelled. but her voice was whipped away to nothing by the wind. She took a step forward, dragging Marianne with her. "We have to get out of the storm!"
Another step, and then, not knowing how, she found herself tipping forward into the snow, a live creature at her feet. She screamed and tried to crawl away , but the creature grabbed her foot. It was sobbing and calling her name.
You idiot, Delphine!" Sophie cried. "What are you doing?"
"My suitcases! I need to find my suitcases!" Delphine scrabbled frantically in the snow.
What takes me out of the story is the use of the word creature to refer to Delphine twice before the mysterious shape is recognized by Sophie and the fact that the narration doesn't state that it is Delphine. Sophie (since she's the narrator/view point character) refers to the shape once as a creature then as this shape gets closer, notably close enough to grab her leg, she is still called a "creature." Even though it is snowing, at this point Delphine should be recognizable to Sophie but, due to the bad writing it just make Sophie come across as kind of dumb.
And this is something that happens a lot in the story, something that should be obvious to the main character is not realized until it is explicitly stated by one of the characters or an epiphany in the narration. Again I attribute this to bad word choice and editing. Really an editor should have caught a lot of these problems.
Another problem is the weak characterization of the characters. Sophie is the plain ordinary girl and doesn't have any memorable character traits other than extreme insecurity. The standard self insert protagonist. She even discovers she is a princess at the end so yay! The best friends have one defining character trait each. Delphine is the girly girl who likes fashion and comes from a family that is frequently around high society. Marianne is the smart one. At first I imagined her without glasses and thought "Hey! Even though she is a rehash of an overused character archetype, at least she doesn't have glasses!" Then the narration indicated she had glasses and I groaned from the predictability of it all. Often these simplistic characterizations of the two best friends would get in the way of creating a believable friendship between the girls. Either Delphine would see something pretty and want to take it even if it was Sophie's or Marianne's or Sophie would be insecure about trusting her friends.
So this is most of what I want to say about this book. I wouldn't recommend it. If you want a good book about Russia, unfortunately I can't make any recommendations, but hopefully The Gathering Storm is good so then I can recommend something.
Once the girls get to St.Petersberg everything seems normal until they are left by their guardian on a train headed away from the city. They are then left on an old abandoned train depot until they are picked up by Ivan the conductor of a large white train. It is from him they learn that they are going to the Volkonsky estate to meet Princess Anna Volkonska. There the girls learn about the Volkonsky family's tragic past and the princess's plans for the estate and just how the girl's fit into that plan.
I picked up this book at Half-Price books the other week along with The Gathering Storm (Katerina, #1) by Robin Bridges another book about Russia. I think I was unintentionally going for a Russian/wintery reading vibe so, I was considering comparing the two books when I finished reading both, but after this book I don't think I will.
I went into this hoping for a sort of modernized Snow Queenish story, since the synopsis on the back of my book told of an ambiguously good princess in a palace in the middle of nowhere in snowy Russia and she lures children there. Also magic and wolves tie in somehow. This is obviously not what happens if you've read my above summary of the book.
I don't think the premise for the story was awful. Sure most of it has been done before and better, but for it's intended age demographic (4th-7th grade it says on the back of my book) it is fine. Ordinary girl discovers something extraordinary; I'm sure many kids that age can relate. My problem with this book is the way it is written. The writing is amateur and does not flow well. Often scenes that should be easy to follow are made confusing by the ambiguous writing. Often I would pause while reading because I was having trouble figuring out what the characters were doing in relation to each other in a scene. For example the following excerpt is from when I first really noticed how much of a distraction it is:
(The girls have just been dumped on the abandoned train station and Sophie and Marianne don't know where Delphine is at.)
"Delphine" she yelled. but her voice was whipped away to nothing by the wind. She took a step forward, dragging Marianne with her. "We have to get out of the storm!"
Another step, and then, not knowing how, she found herself tipping forward into the snow, a live creature at her feet. She screamed and tried to crawl away , but the creature grabbed her foot. It was sobbing and calling her name.
You idiot, Delphine!" Sophie cried. "What are you doing?"
"My suitcases! I need to find my suitcases!" Delphine scrabbled frantically in the snow.
What takes me out of the story is the use of the word creature to refer to Delphine twice before the mysterious shape is recognized by Sophie and the fact that the narration doesn't state that it is Delphine. Sophie (since she's the narrator/view point character) refers to the shape once as a creature then as this shape gets closer, notably close enough to grab her leg, she is still called a "creature." Even though it is snowing, at this point Delphine should be recognizable to Sophie but, due to the bad writing it just make Sophie come across as kind of dumb.
And this is something that happens a lot in the story, something that should be obvious to the main character is not realized until it is explicitly stated by one of the characters or an epiphany in the narration. Again I attribute this to bad word choice and editing. Really an editor should have caught a lot of these problems.
Another problem is the weak characterization of the characters. Sophie is the plain ordinary girl and doesn't have any memorable character traits other than extreme insecurity. The standard self insert protagonist. She even discovers she is a princess at the end so yay! The best friends have one defining character trait each. Delphine is the girly girl who likes fashion and comes from a family that is frequently around high society. Marianne is the smart one. At first I imagined her without glasses and thought "Hey! Even though she is a rehash of an overused character archetype, at least she doesn't have glasses!" Then the narration indicated she had glasses and I groaned from the predictability of it all. Often these simplistic characterizations of the two best friends would get in the way of creating a believable friendship between the girls. Either Delphine would see something pretty and want to take it even if it was Sophie's or Marianne's or Sophie would be insecure about trusting her friends.
So this is most of what I want to say about this book. I wouldn't recommend it. If you want a good book about Russia, unfortunately I can't make any recommendations, but hopefully The Gathering Storm is good so then I can recommend something.
Let's make this clear: I have never been a huge fan of princess stories (particularly the Disney versions). As a result, this book is by it's very nature something that I would not normally read.
Despite that fact, I found it to be an overall cute book. The plot line was extremely predictable and cliche although I don't think that I have yet come across many of these "long lost royalty" type books in a modern setting. I therefore was more than a little confused about the time period to begin with but as the story progressed my confusion dissipated.
I enjoyed the Russian setting and this book did make me much more interested in the Russian language. (Before reading this book the only word in Russian I'd ever heard was "da" meaning "yes".)
This is a good book for girls between the ages of 10 and roughly 14 or anyone in the mood for a heart warming, uplifting story. I particularly recommend it for wintertime.
As for the cover to the American edition of this book . . . What was the publisher thinking?
[bc:The Wolf Princess|15835861|The Wolf Princess|Cathryn Constable|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1345367447s/15835861.jpg|21573737] to [bc:The Wolf Princess|17168248|The Wolf Princess|Cathryn Constable|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1380754838s/17168248.jpg|21573737]
I mean no offence to the people designing either cover and the American cover isn't exactly "bad" but the UK cover is an estimated ten times more times likely to end up on my bookshelf. Is there some reason that publishers can't coordinate? On the other hand, I suppose I shouldn't complain and just be overjoyed by the fact that I got to read an Arc . . . to be perfectly honest I very well might not have read it otherwise.
Despite that fact, I found it to be an overall cute book. The plot line was extremely predictable and cliche although I don't think that I have yet come across many of these "long lost royalty" type books in a modern setting. I therefore was more than a little confused about the time period to begin with but as the story progressed my confusion dissipated.
I enjoyed the Russian setting and this book did make me much more interested in the Russian language. (Before reading this book the only word in Russian I'd ever heard was "da" meaning "yes".)
This is a good book for girls between the ages of 10 and roughly 14 or anyone in the mood for a heart warming, uplifting story. I particularly recommend it for wintertime.
As for the cover to the American edition of this book . . . What was the publisher thinking?
[bc:The Wolf Princess|15835861|The Wolf Princess|Cathryn Constable|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1345367447s/15835861.jpg|21573737] to [bc:The Wolf Princess|17168248|The Wolf Princess|Cathryn Constable|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1380754838s/17168248.jpg|21573737]
I mean no offence to the people designing either cover and the American cover isn't exactly "bad" but the UK cover is an estimated ten times more times likely to end up on my bookshelf. Is there some reason that publishers can't coordinate? On the other hand, I suppose I shouldn't complain and just be overjoyed by the fact that I got to read an Arc . . . to be perfectly honest I very well might not have read it otherwise.