Reviews

Gail Carson Levine has carved out a niche in her spirited retellings of familiar folktales...we are treated to heroines who are smart and feisty. At Princess Sonora's birth, one fairy blesses her with being ten times smarter than anyone else. At this point, baby Sonora understands everything that is happening, even the pronouncement of the uninvited Fairy Belladonna that Sonora will prick herself with a spindle and die. Fortunately, the last fairy wishes her sleep for one hundred years. To avoid the inevitable, Sonora hides the spindle in her own toy chest so she can choose when to prick herself. Nothing goes as planned. The outcome is something out of a French farce with Sonora still having the last word.
Children's Literature