More Princess Stories That Won't Shrink Ze Brain...

Reader devereaux/Nora comments that her 10-year-old reader (DD) had enjoyed Ella Enchanted and The Princess Academy, eagerly seeks out alternate versions of fairy tales, and would welcome more suggestions of books of the fractured fairy tale genre.

Here's a list of novels suitable for middle and YA readers, from which this discriminating young reader may choose: Beauty, a reworked Snow White, by Nancy Butcher; Beauty Sleep, by Cameron Dokey; The Great Good Thing, by Rod Townley; East,< a retelling of East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon, by Edith Patou; and Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg, an extension of Peter Pan by Gail Carson Levine. I haven't read these novels myself, but they received good professional reviews.

Devereaux/Nora also requested some fiction books about doll houses. Nora didn't mention any favorites, but if DD hasn't found these two, The Doll People and its sequel The Meanest Doll in the World, by Ann M. Martin, should fill the bill. Another tried-and-true dollhouse fantasy is Rumer Godden's classic The Doll's House.


If DD doesn't mind a bit of mystery, there's also The Doll House Murders, by Betty Ren Wright, a not-terribly-scary mystery in which the dolls in the attic dollhouse rearrange themselves each night to help Amy solve a decades-old murder in the old house below.

I hope the above titles help. If any of you readers out there have other suggestions for our 10-year-old DD, please add your comments to help Nora keep her reading happily!