LibrisNotes: Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George

Princess of the Midnight Ball is a retelling of the fairy tale, The Twelve Dancing Princesses. In this story, Princess Rose is the eldest of twelve sisters who have been cursed to dance each night for King Under Stone in his dark realm. Princess Rose's father, King Gregor, ruler of Analousia, suspects something is wrong because his daughters dancing slippers are worn to tatters every third night. As part of the curse, Rose and her sisters cannot even provide the slightest details as to what is happening to them.
In an attempt to learn what is happening with his daughters, King Gregor offers the choice of his daughters to the prince who is able to discover the secret behind the worn out slippers. After numerous young men fail in their attempt, Galen Orm, the nephew of the king's gardener decides to give it a shot. But Galen has a few tricks up his sleeve and a stout heart on his side.
This novel is well written, fast paced and exciting to the very end. We all know the ending, so it's no surprise, but George's book is entertaining nonetheless.

Book Details:

Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George
New York: Bloomsbury 2009
276pp

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Quotables

"I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that every-thing will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more."
Anne Frank

"Be kind, for everyone is fighting a hard battle."
Auggie Pullman in Wonder

“It doesn’t happen all at once,” he said. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be
ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams

"I never look back darling. It distracts from the now."
Edna Mode, Incredibles

I once read in my physics book that the universe begs to be observed, that energy travels and transfers when people pay attention. Maybe that's what love really boils down to -- having someone who cares enough to pay attention so that you're encouraged to travel and transfer, to make your potential energy spark into kinetic energy. Maybe all anyone ever needs is for someone to notice them, to observe them."
-Aysel Seran in My Heart and Other Black Holes

“You have been my friend," replied Charlotte. "That in itself is a tremendous thing...after all, what's a life anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die...By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone's life can stand a little of that.”
― E.B. White, Charlotte's Web

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo. ‘So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” J.R. Tolkien

"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world. Harriet Tubman

A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.

Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities, Chapter III The Night Shadows

"A dead thing goes with the stream; only a living thing can go against it." G.K. Chesterton

“The heart has reasons that reason cannot know.” Blaise Pascal

William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!
Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
William Roper: Yes, I’d cut down every law in England to do that!
Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned ’round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man’s laws, not God’s! And if you cut them down, and you’re just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake!
From Robert Bolt`s A Man For All Seasons.

My mind was a messy attic, with snippets of my interviews and different rumors jumbling in my head.
Tree Taylor from The Secrets of Tree Taylor by Dandi Daley Mackall.

Pages

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George

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