Pennyroyal Academy: Seeking bold, courageous youths to become tomorrow's princesses and knights….Come one, come all!
A girl from the forest arrives in a bustling kingdom with no name and no idea why she is there, only to find herself at the center of a world at war. She enlists at Pennyroyal Academy, where princesses and knights are trained to battle the two great menaces of the day: witches and dragons. There, given the name “Evie,” she must endure a harsh training regimen under the steel glare of her Fairy Drillsergeant, while also navigating an entirely new world of friends and enemies. As Evie learns what it truly means to be a princess, she realizes surprising things about herself and her family, about human compassion and inhuman cruelty. And with the witch forces moving nearer, she discovers that the war between princesses and witches is much more personal than she could ever have imagined.
Set in Grimm’s fairytale world, M.A. Larson’s Pennyroyal Academy masterfully combines adventure, humor, and magical mischief.
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
Remix of fairy tales.
By Brent Edwards
This book remixes fairy tales. It's a world where princesses and knights fight witches and dragons. It's a world with dozens of small kingdoms, giants, and dark, magical forests. And from this world comes an unnamed girl, wearing spider silk, on her way to join Pennyroyal Academy.M. A. Larson, the author, has demonstrated his creativity in many cartoons, but this is his first novel. And his background occasionally shows. Aside from Evie, many other characters are flat: either generically nice (Magdalena, Rumpledshirtsleeves) or functional (the Fairy Drillsergeant) or otherwise. (The exceptions I'd rather not name, to keep this review spoiler-free.) The shortcuts that work for twenty-two minute cartoons don't work so well in novels.On the other hand, his prose style matches the nineteenth century Grimm's tales translations, with flowing sentences and luscious detail. His locations, even the crumbling towers and abandoned towns, are richly described.In short, it's a fun book, and a good start to a series. Its flaws can be fixed in its sequels, as we learn more stories from other people at the Academy.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
We want to attend Pennyroyal Academy!
By Kri Perry
My daughters, ages 9 and 10, absolutely love this book. I just finished reading it and we found time to read some chapters together. We couldn't put it down!. Great adventure! Love the characters, their trials, their choices and the lessons they learn along the way! Even my 7 year old son enjoyed listening to me read some chapters aloud. Awesome villains! Hope there's a series of these books. We will buy the next one as soon as Amazon has it available! My girls and I decided we would re-read it together this next week, now that we know the surprise ending, we want to go back and put it all into context and enjoy the adventure again! I really appreciated some of the "life lessons" in the story. Life isn't fair. Even for a princess.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Skip This
By K M.
The book had an interesting premise to start, but that quickly faded under the choppy writing, boring characterization, and quick descent into cliches and predictability. With the exception of Basil, the side characters were interchangeable and very forgettable. Transitions were horrible! The chapter would build up to a climatic, tense moment and then the next chapter would start, quite a bit after the moment had passed, with the moment you had been waiting to see resolved often only referenced in a few sentences half way through the next chaper. All that aside, I think my main problem with the book was that it would bring up an excellent message--such as you are made by your choices and not where you come from or if you feel good about yourself, you'll do better--and then it would promptly and viciously undercut it. Take, for example, the whole training of the princesses. We are told that only princesses can fight and defeat witches and everything they do will lead to the young girls to be able to do this. But a huge part of their training involves letting the knights rescue them, sewing pretty dresses and dancing so they can be judged at a ball (where there are no witches), and taking part in their final test of the year, which is called 'The Helpless Maiden'. How do any of these things teach courage, compassion, and kindness, the tools needed to defeat witches? There is also the excellent point made that your choices and decisions are what make you and define you more than where you come from, who your parents are, and where you were born; without going into details that will spoil the ending for people, this point becomes essentially moot with the character of Malora (which, can we get any more obvious with Malora's name?). All and all, there are much better fantasy books out there for kids today. This one lacks the magical spark that will give it staying power. I recommend that if you want to read it, go to your library and save yourself the money.
