Princess Ben, Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Princess Ben, Catherine Gilbert Murdock
List: $35.99 | Sale: $25.20
Club: $17.99

Princess Ben
Being a Wholly Truthful Account of Her Various Discoveries and Misadventures, Recounted to the Best of Her Recollection, in Four Parts

Author: Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Narrator: Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Unabridged: 6 hr 17 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download (DRM Protected)

Published: 11/20/2008


Synopsis

A “deliciously frothy fairy tale” from the award-winning author of The Book of Boy and the Dairy Queen series (Horn Book Magazine, starred review). Catherine Gilbert Murdock’s talents for storytelling and creating strong female characters take a fresh turn in this spirited and sophisticated fairy tale. Benevolence is not your typical princess. With her parents lost to assassins, Princess Ben ends up under the thumb of the conniving Queen Sophia. Starved and miserable, locked in the castle’s highest tower, Ben stumbles upon a mysterious enchanted room. So begins her secret education in the magical arts: mastering an obstinate flying broomstick, furtively emptying the castle pantries, setting her hair on fire . . . But Ben’s private adventures are soon overwhelmed by a mortal threat to her kingdom. Can Ben save the country and herself from foul tyranny? “Murdock spins a rip-roaring yarn that borrows fairy-tale conventions (particularly from “Sleeping Beauty”) and reverses them to suit her strong, resourceful heroine. The wild adventure, intricately imagined setting, memorable characters, and romance will charm readers, especially fans of Gail Carson Levine’s Fairest.”—Booklist (starred review) “Murdock’s first venture into fantasy offers a fairy tale with several twists and surprises, and readers will be drawn into the world and moods that she creates.”—School Library Journal “Readers will love every minute they spend with [Princess Ben].”—Teensreadtoo.com

About Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Catherine Murdock is the author of Dairy Queen, its sequel The Off Season, and the forthcoming Front and Center. She lives outside Philadelphia with her husband, two children, and several cats, and regrets to report that she has never flown a broom, though not for lack of effort. Princess Ben is her first fairy tale.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Monica on April 11, 2008

Started to write this here and realized it was developed enough to be worth posting on my blog. So here is my post: I’ve read, loved, studied, and taught fairy tales all my life. Every three years I co-teach a graduate school fairy tale course and, since 1990, I’ve been doing a Cinderella unit with m......more

Goodreads review by Brooke on June 02, 2008

I remember something Diana Wynne Jones wrote that went something along the lines of this: "In Fantasyland, a princess is either a 1. Wimp, or 2. Rebellious spunky swordswoman with a sprinkling of freckles across the bridge of her tip-tilted nose." Needless to say, the rebellious-princess character has......more

Goodreads review by Allison on September 25, 2011

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. First let me say that I'm not a fan of these realistic book covers, which seem to be all the rage recently. I much prefer the more artistic covers that allow me to imagine what the main character etc. look like. I'm also usually a little skeptical of fairy ta......more

Goodreads review by Camly on January 19, 2016

Definitely could've been more exciting. I feel like the author spent so much time trying to develop the main character that she just forgot about everything else. I expected perhaps a bit more magic and and bit less " I hate the queen so I'm going to be a little bitch". The writing just wasn't compel......more