Review by Booklist Review
Gr. 4^-7. Timid Princess Addie becomes so distressed when her protective older sister Meryl contracts the Gray Death, an always-fatal wasting sickness, that she vows to find the cure. Aided by magical gifts from those closest to her, including a tall, handsome young sorcerer, Addie finds the courage to carry out her quest. When captured by Vollys, a she-dragon who knows the cure, Addie uses her skills, wits, and patience to discover the secret and save her sister's life. Readers will find this an exciting adventure story with a sympathetic heroine. Both princesses are well-defined characters, and the portrayal of the dragon is quite original; the scenes in her lair are the most absorbing parts of the book. However, the love interest seems more conventional and less convincing. Still, Levine's many fans will enjoy this fantasy of a princess who triumphs when she discovers her inner strength. --Carolyn Phelan
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The robust voice of esteemed British actress Lynn Redgrave escorts listeners on an adventurous journey in Levine's (Ella Enchanted) latest fantasy novel. Princess Addie and her older (by one year) sister Princess Meryl are the best of friends, even though their personalities appear to be totally different: Addie is fearful and shy while Meryl favors swordplay and entertains thoughts of slaying monsters and dragons. But when Meryl is stricken by an ancient, fatal illness known as the Gray Death, Addie must overcome her fears and embark on a dangerous quest to find a cure. Addie's search leads her through forests filled with ogres and specters and even to a dragon's lair, where she learns the secret of what will heal Meryl. Along the way, Addie is bolstered by magical gifts and occasional visits from Rhys, the young sorcerer she has come to love. However, finding an antidote for the Gray Death does not save Meryl in a way that anyone would expect. Redgrave energetically characterizes a colorful line-up of characters and beasts, from the stern busybody of a governess, Bella, to Rhys, whose accent falls somewhere between Scottish and Indian. But Redgrave most convincingly portrays Addie's shift from trepidation to courage. Ages 10-up. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-7-This story takes place in a magical time and mystical place and is teaming with dragons, specters, gryphons, elves, and fairies. Princesses Addie and Meryl live with their father, the king, in the castle of Bamarre, where magic and sorcery are a part of everyday life. While Meryl is fearless and confident, Addie is quite comfortable letting others take care of her. When Meryl falls victim to a mysterious illness called the Gray Death, which has already taken countless citizens including the girls' mother, Addie is determined to find the cure and save her. The prophecy is that "the Gray Death will be cured when cowards find courage and rain falls over all Bamarre." Aided by magical gifts from her governess, the elf nurse, and the king's sorcerer, Addie begins her quest. In a Chaucer-like tale, the story of Drualt, a hero of epic proportions, is excerpted in verse throughout the story. He serves as a role model for Addie, who believes she is weak, but her adventures teach her that one must look within to find strength. While this lesson is presented in a somewhat didactic manner, it is one that adolescents can never hear too often. An unexpected twist neatly ties up most of the loose ends. The characters aren't as fully drawn and the writing is not as consistent as we have come to expect from Levine, resulting in a slow starter that speeds up slightly at the end.-Kit Vaughan, Midlothian Middle School, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
(Middle School) Courageous Princess Meryl glories in declaiming her country's heroic epic poem and plans to spend her life battling gryphons and dragons. Adeline, her timid sister, is gifted in such household arts as needlework. As luck will have it, it is Meryl who contracts the disease that plagues Bamarre and killed their mother long ago. Swiftly, the ""Gray Death"" drains Meryl of all strength; the cure is known only to dragons and the inaccessible fairies, though it is also known that courage demonstrated by a former coward could extinguish the epidemic. While the timorous king consults advisers and recites platitudes, Addie arms herself with her sister's sword and equipment such as seven-league boots and sets out to find the cure. At this point, midway through the book, both action and humor pick up. Among other things, a magic tablecloth proves conveniently deadly when greedy monsters gorge themselves on its bounty; and Vollys, the dragon who holds Addie captive while Meryl's time runs out, is a clever conversationalist as well as a wily and potentially lethal antagonist. Once Addie breaks free, her race for the cure is satisfyingly eventful. The outcome is a nice mix of the hoped-for and the unexpected. Levine makes entertaining use of a lot of magical paraphernalia (though the telescope through which Addie checks up on her sister seems more a device for the author's purposes than for her narrator's). Emphasis is on the action; still, there are occasional insights, as when Vollys, praising Addie as a worthy opponent, says, ""[Meryl] could lead a charge, but you could last a siege."" Having finally recognized her own courage, Addie realizes that Meryl ""wanted to battle monsters for the adventure of it. I wanted to defeat them for the peace that would follow."" Ironically, the greatest appeal of Addie's tale will not be to potential peacemakers like herself but to those who, like her sister, enjoy the idea of battling monsters. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A decidedly unspunky heroine quails her way past terrors real and imaginary in a quest to save her sister's life. Addie, the younger of the two eponymous princesses, watches as her sister Meryl practices for a life of swordplay and derring-do; she herself would much rather sit quietly and do her needlework. But when Meryl falls ill with the incurable Gray Death, Addie steels herself to find a cure, venturing forth to encounter specters, dragons, ogres, andalmost the worst of allspiders. She is aided by an assortment of magical items and periodic visits from Rhys, her father's sorcerer. Punctuated by excerpts from Drualt , Bamarre's epic poem, the text clearly aims at Tolkienesque high fantasy, complete with a tantalizingly unfulfilled prophecy regarding the cure for the Gray Death. But Levine's ( The Wish , 2000, etc.) strength lies in character development and world-making, not in epic plot construction. Addie is a refreshingly timid quester whose unabashed love for embroidery sets her apart from the hordes of plucky heroines who have gone before. The attributes of the various non-human creatures that populate her world are well-definedespecially the sorcerers, magical beings who live 500 years and only very rarely marry humansand her prolonged "visit" with a delightfully evil dragon is quite wonderful. These elements are not enough to elevate a plot that moves unevenly from adventure to adventure, involving multiple convenient rescues, a predictable romance, and an ultimately unsatisfying deus ex machina at the end. Does this matter? Levine's popularity and a publicity juggernaut virtually ensure this book's success, despite its flaws. (Fiction. 9-14)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
