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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
Every so often I will come across a book that has a title so appealing, I am almost compelled to pick it up and start reading. Very often these novels disappoint me, but I am happy to say that was not the case with The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy. Picking up this novel was a happy accident. Our local library is going through an extensive renovation, and has moved to a temporary location. This location is about an eighth as big as their old space so everything is jammed in close together. I was looking for a YA novel and did not realize I had wandered into the Juvenile stacks. It did not matter when I saw this novel I just had to read it.
It has become almost unthinkable that a modern fairytale would ever have a “Damsel in distress” waiting to be saved by her “Prince Charming”. If you have any doubt about it, look no further than the most recent Disney Princesses, in the movie “Brave” Miranda actually rejects the idea of settling down with a prince. In Christopher Healy’s novel, he suggests that most if not all of the princesses in fairy tales really did not need their “Princes Charming”. I just adored this novel because the Princes had their faults, but so did the princesses. In fact Sleeping Beauty turned out to be a stone cold bitch in the end of this story. I just could not stop laughing the entire time I was reading. The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom does a marvelous job straddling the line between the feminist movement that said all fairytales show the victimization of women, and traditionalist who insist that fairytales are just stories for kids. I was born in the heyday of the Feminist movement, and my mother NEVER read the "Disneyfied" versions of Grimm's Fairytales. I got the original stories with all the pecked eyes, and where the prince does not marry the little mermaid and where she gets turned into sea-foam in the end. So for me this story was even better.
Mr. Healy did a wonderful job of making his characters three dimensional, something that seems to be a challenge when writing to a youth market. The writing style was simplistic, but the characters were rich and well created. There is minimal violence, but there is some. Although a Juvenile novel, I think any Young Adult reader would find things to enjoy in this book. I’m actually looking forward to reading the other novels in the series.
It has become almost unthinkable that a modern fairytale would ever have a “Damsel in distress” waiting to be saved by her “Prince Charming”. If you have any doubt about it, look no further than the most recent Disney Princesses, in the movie “Brave” Miranda actually rejects the idea of settling down with a prince. In Christopher Healy’s novel, he suggests that most if not all of the princesses in fairy tales really did not need their “Princes Charming”. I just adored this novel because the Princes had their faults, but so did the princesses. In fact Sleeping Beauty turned out to be a stone cold bitch in the end of this story. I just could not stop laughing the entire time I was reading. The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom does a marvelous job straddling the line between the feminist movement that said all fairytales show the victimization of women, and traditionalist who insist that fairytales are just stories for kids. I was born in the heyday of the Feminist movement, and my mother NEVER read the "Disneyfied" versions of Grimm's Fairytales. I got the original stories with all the pecked eyes, and where the prince does not marry the little mermaid and where she gets turned into sea-foam in the end. So for me this story was even better.
Mr. Healy did a wonderful job of making his characters three dimensional, something that seems to be a challenge when writing to a youth market. The writing style was simplistic, but the characters were rich and well created. There is minimal violence, but there is some. Although a Juvenile novel, I think any Young Adult reader would find things to enjoy in this book. I’m actually looking forward to reading the other novels in the series.
Review available at http://adolescentaudioadventures.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-heros-guide-series.html
Reviewed from a library copy.
Reviewed from a library copy.
adventurous
funny
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
What a wonderful book. A rehash of the traditional, popular fairy tales, "The Hero's Guide to Saving your Kingdom" takes the four most popular couples, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Rapunzel and Snow White and each of their Princes Charming, and throws a spanner in the works.
It was funny, exciting and beautifully written. Christopher Healy has taken well loved characters and created less perfect more realistic versions of them. It's worth a read for 8-12 year olds, and for fun, read it to them... You won't be sorry..!
It was funny, exciting and beautifully written. Christopher Healy has taken well loved characters and created less perfect more realistic versions of them. It's worth a read for 8-12 year olds, and for fun, read it to them... You won't be sorry..!
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Fun continuation of the "real" people who inspired the familiar fairy tales of Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Rapunzel. In the book world, bards (royal court-employed storytellers/news purveyors) have interpreted the "real" events, spinning them into popular stories everyone believes. The generically-named Princes Charming are different princes, and they all have names, and there is a lot more to them than the cardboard placeholders in the fairy tales. There is more to the eponymous females of the stories as well, and we get to meet them all and see how they interact, make choices, challenge themselves, and grow a bit when they eventually team up to defeat the evil witch from the Rapunzel tale who wants to set the record straight and get credit for her evilness and formidable magical prowess.
The book reads like an action story, complete with monsters and other typical fairy tale characters (who are also more nuanced than their stereotypes). I think this book would appeal to both boys and girls (like the Percy Jackson series) from 3rd grade up, though older readers will pick up on more of the meta messages (don't believe everything you hear/read, most girls do not need to be "saved") as well as the word play that led me to sometimes laugh out loud (on a plane). Age 8+
The book reads like an action story, complete with monsters and other typical fairy tale characters (who are also more nuanced than their stereotypes). I think this book would appeal to both boys and girls (like the Percy Jackson series) from 3rd grade up, though older readers will pick up on more of the meta messages (don't believe everything you hear/read, most girls do not need to be "saved") as well as the word play that led me to sometimes laugh out loud (on a plane). Age 8+
Silly and somewhat formulaic, this book is nonetheless entertaining. It combines characters from numerous fairy tales in a what-happened-after scenario. Recommended to me by one of our young patrons, I would recommend it to others.
Really fun middle grade fantasy. Loosely based around several fairy tale characters, but from the "Prince Charming" point of view.