June 22, 2015
This spirited be-careful-what-you-wish-for story opens on an enticing note as King Regis grants the request of his daughter, Princess Juniper, to rule her own country as a present for her 13th âNameday.â Paquetteâs (Rules for Ghosting) dramatic and humorous novel sends Juniper off with a ragtag group of children to establish her kingdom in the remote Hourglass Mountains. âBeing queen, it turned out, was rather easier thought than done,â Juniper observes as she copes with her âwild and unrulyâ subjects, who include Cyril, the son of her fatherâs chief advisor. But Juniperâs gumption and optimism prevail as she reassures her followers, âWeâre going to build the very best kingdom there ever was. Weâll have fun, too, as we go.â Though the fledgling queenâs confidence flags in the face of Cyrilâs scheme to usurp her sovereignty and ominous signs that her fatherâs palace has fallen to enemies, readers wonât doubt her eventual triumph, which involves some entertaining twists and paves the way for more lighthearted intrigue ahead. Ages 8â12. Agent: Erin Murphy, Erin Murphy Literary Agency.
April 15, 2015
A princess requests and receives a country for her 13th birthday. With her very own country, Princess Juniper will be able to interact with others in informal, casual ways-kind of. She gathers kids to journey to her "brand-new kingdom," where she'll be queen and they'll be her subjects. But instead of their scheduled departure, the kids are rushed off the palace grounds at night, hearing distant battle sounds and directed by the king to a place on no map. The hidden basin in the mountains is idyllic, with a waterfall, fruit trees, and bedrooms carved in the rock. Juniper loses her rule-for withholding information about the war back at home-and mounts an exciting scheme to recover it. However, this text isn't anti-royalist: the other kids are her "friends" and "family" but still her "subjects"; and if a ruler's heart is in the right place, it's fine to demand heaps of work (and work itself is romanticized). Luxuries ("silks and scarves and paints and powders") and sumptuous meals ("crispy cheese sticks"; "fresh sage griddle cakes topped with sweet butter and honey syrup") evoke stories from a bygone era. Unfortunately, matching that old-fashioned sensibility is a "notoriously secretive tribe" of "obscure origin and uncertain habitation" and "wildness"-a stereotypical, Romany-esque portrayal regrettably poised for a larger role in the sequel. Despite a sense of playacting, this is a gently adventurous and luxuriously detailed romp. (Fantasy. 8-11)
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June 1, 2015
Gr 3-6-Princess Juniper is always hurrying from comportment lessons to riding to training and class and never quite on time, according to her hourglass. Such is the life of the Princess of Torr. Juniper, however, wants a break this summer and makes it her task to convince her loving but extremely busy father to let her start her own practice kingdom with other children as her subjects. She recruits a guard's son, Erick, as her chief advisor; a baker's daughter, Alta, as her guard; and other children ready for a summer of adventure. Then suddenly the king wakes her in the middle of the night and sends the 13-year-old off with her small band of willing cohorts-all under the cover of darkness, with strange sounds of battle in the distance. Much to everyone's displeasure, the king's advisor sends along his sniveling son, Cyril, along with Cyril's two compatriots. The group heads to a secret valley, rich in land, sun, and water that they soon name the Queen's Basin. With hard work and direction from Juniper, they work without break to create a community complete with kitchen and bedroom caves. But all is not right with their homeland of Torr. An invasion has laid waste to the land, the king is captured, and worse, Juniper's lost control of her kingdom to Cyril and has been imprisoned. But Juniper is her father's child and she is driven, intelligent, and able to use her few loyal subjects. In the end, she realizes that she friends instead of subjects, and the motley crew might be able to save Torr. With elements from William Golding's The Lord of the Flies and Paul Fleischman's Westlandia (Candlewick, 1999), this story can be enjoyed by those who love princess stories and adventure tales. The characters are not necessarily realistic, but the plot carries the story along and leaves hints for a sequel. VERDICT A rollicking tale that will please a wide range of readers.-Clare A. Dombrowski, Amesbury Public Library, MA
Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
July 1, 2015
Grades 4-7 In the kingdom of Torr, Princess Juniper has turned 13, and what she wants most for her name-day gift is to practice ruling a country, in order to prepare for the role she will one day inherit. With the king's blessing, Juniper gathers a dozen children and sets up a small kingdom of her own, hidden several hours from the castle in the Hourglass Mountains. But when Torr is attacked by a neighboring kingdom, the newly established Queen's Basin becomes a refuge from the onslaught. Playacting at roles quickly becomes reality as challengers arise from among Juniper's subjects, seeking to take everything from the young queen. Borrowing themes of world building and exploration from Katherine Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia (1977), Paquette takes young readers gently by the hand into the adult world of responsibility, danger, and the unknown. The fully developed cast of characters is engaging, and readers will cheer the conclusion and happily await Juniper's further adventures.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)