Hamster Princess: Harriet the Invincible
Ursula Vernon
256 pages
hard copy edition
From the Publisher:
Sleeping Beauty gets a feisty, furry twist in this hilarious new comic series from the creator of Dragonbreath
Harriet Hamsterbone is not your typical princess. She may be quite stunning in the rodent realm (you’ll have to trust her on this one), but she is not so great at trailing around the palace looking ethereal or sighing a lot. She finds the royal life rather . . . dull. One day, though, Harriet’s parents tell her of the curse that a rat placed on her at birth, dooming her to prick her finger on a hamster wheel when she’s twelve and fall into a deep sleep. For Harriet, this is most wonderful news: It means she’s invincible until she’s twelve! After all, no good curse goes to waste. And so begins a grand life of adventure with her trusty riding quail, Mumfrey…until her twelfth birthday arrives and the curse manifests in a most unexpected way.
Review:
Last summer my sister and niece introduced me to Castle Hangnail and I quickly fell in love with it! (you can read my review here), Since I wasn’t sure my boys would be as crazy about a girl protagonist as much as me, we looked up Vernon’s books on our next trip to the library and there we found the Dragonbreath series…which they loved! They read as many as they could find over the summer break. I truly believe there is nothing better than finding a good series of books that my kids adore – that isn’t annoying or stupid. These books are silly and fun, but are witty and not annoying.
Last week while I was at the library I walked by the Dragonbreath books just to make sure they didn’t have any new ones that my boys hadn’t read…and I noticed this one! When I asked my sister if she had read it, she said she already had (so maybe she mentioned it to me and I forogt?) Either way – I was pretty excited to get this book and I sat and read it in one night.
This book was just so fun and awesome! It made me laugh out loud and was so witty and clever. Harriet is such a fun character, she has backbone and is so strong and brainy! I love the twist on such a classic fairy tale. I’ll admit, I checked this book out for me – but I also thought my little 6 year old would love it. I showed it to her this weekend and she is loving this little story. She hasn’t finished it, but she reads some every day after school and homework. She will laugh out loud at parts and come show me pictures. She thinks it’s so clever!
If you read Castle Hangnail and loved it, you should read the rest of Vernon’s books. I think another read alike for young readers would be The Princess in Black series, which is another series of easy chapter books with a girl protagonist that is witty and smart (not annoying!) My daughter loves them all!
Any girl (and even boys) between 2-6th grade I think would really enjoy this book!
Final Score:
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