Fran: H is for Hale

I am a big fan of Shannon Hale, having read many of her books (though not the ghastly looking Ever After High series).  I've probably read a dozen, including the Bayern series, the comics, and here--the Princess Academy.

This is the third book in the Princess Academy series, The Forgotten Sisters.  I have really enjoyed the setting--Mount Eskel where the linder stone is quarried, versus the lowlands.  Hale draws a world where inequalities in economics and political power are nuanced and interesting, especially as the main character Miri discovers first her village's exploitation and then how to leverage the village's labor/product for advantage.

I like the character of Miri, the mountain girl who is clever and vibrant.  She loves learning, stories and history; I love how Hale writes her discovering how ideas work together (that economics and history and politics are different perspectives on a same idea).

This book is somewhat forced in its set-up (more than the others).  Miri, planning on returning to her village, is forced to go be a tutor to the "sisters" in order to prepare them for marriage to a king in order to stop a war.  Never mind that she's not qualified, we have to send her.  The wildness of the sisters, raised in the (Louisiana bayou-esque) swamp, is somewhat forced as well but what Hale wants to do is clear.  She wants to introduce another set of strong girls who have skills that serve them in their home, that become surprisingly useful in a new setting.  The idea of them being innately noble and smart is somewhat forced but I'd rather have that than girls who are vapid and silly.

My MAJOR complaint is not with Hale but with the publisher, Bloomsbury USA Childrens.  The covers have gotten increasingly Disney-fied as the series has gone through editions/hardback/paperback.  The strong girls are now drawn with their prettiest dresses, tiny waists, slightly too large heads.  Since there's a section where the silliness of this outfit in the swampy area is drawn attention to, I also feel like drawing attention to it.  These books stand beautifully on their own.  They do not need a Disney treatment, even for the tween girls they're aimed at.