by Patricia C. Wrede
240 pages
Cimorene is a princess, but doesn't act like one. Instead of blond, beautiful hair, she has dark, curly, unruly hair. She learns fencing, not needlepoint. She prefers cooking to courtly manners, and even badgers the court magician into teaching her a few spells. Finally having enough of her rash behavior, her father starts arranging a marriage for her. Rather than face a marriage to some snobby prince, she runs off.
After getting some mysterious advise from frog, Cimorene decides to follow it. After all, not following advice gets you in trouble. After knocking and snapping her fingers, Cimorene enters a small cottage only to hear some voices deciding her fate. One wants to eat her, one doesn't really care, and one wants to keep her. After arguing, the voice that wants to keep her wins, and Cimorene is surprised to see the voice belongs to a dragon. While belonging to a dragon seems far better than being eaten by one, she is still not quite sure what being a dragon's princess entails.
After a few weeks, Cimorene has never been happier. She organizes treasure, cooks cherries jubilee, and even visits giants! But princes have been showing up to try and rescue her. Quite put out by their efforts (she enjoys serving a dragon!), she plots and plans ways to get the princes to leave her alone. But she is not the only one with plots and plans. Wizards, dragons and witches all play parts in a plot to overthrow the dragon king!
I love this book, plus the series that follows! Lots of humor, wit and drama (but not on Cimorene's part). Definitely the rebel princess, Cimorene is practical, honest, and straightforward. She is clever, funny and lots of fun to read about!
This is a great book for kids, late elementary and up. The action is fast, the dialogue funny, and the plot line is great. I have loved this book for a long time, and like to reread it every now and then. Great book! One I love to recommend to people!
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