For Biddle's Sake (Princess Tales)

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable yarn full of subversive fairy tale elements
Review: For Biddle's Sake is a charming yarn with multiple layers of subversive yet entertaining elements.

The story is based on a little known fairytale, Puddocky, with the classic Levine fairy tale elements: silly quests like finding a dog that will fit inside a walnut shell; humorous names like Princess Alyssatissaprincissa (sister of Countess Marianabanessacontessa); silliness such as distinguishing the twins by the size of their nostrils; and, the gratuitous normal-girl-meets-normal-prince through non-normal means.

"For Biddle's Sake" shares several of the same locales (e.g., Snettering-on-Snoakes) and character lineage (e.g, King Humphrey IV) as the Princess Test, which is somewhat comforting as these names can be tongue-twisters. As in the other books in the Princess series, Levine does a great job of portraying unsavory characters as capable of some redemption. For example, in Biddle, Randolph and Rudolph, while the bane of Tansy's daily life, eventually become comfortable with their place in the universe and co-exist with their brother.

Rating:
Summary: For pity's sake, read this book!
Review: Okay, I'll admit it. I am a Gail Carson Levine addict. I'll read anything she's written. But that's because she proves herself over and over and over. For Biddle's Sake, one of two new stories in the Princess Tales, lives up to the other tales in this series. Parsley loves, well, parsley. She won't eat anything else. The only place parsley growns near her parents' home is the garden of a fairy, Bombina, who is in fairy prison for turning too many people into toads (she's only allowed 5 a year). Alas and alack, the fairy is released and catches Parsley's father in mid-steal and ends up taking the parsley-loving mite home with her. As Parsley grows up, she becomes fascinated with the local royalty. The king has three sons, Randolph, Rudolph, and Tansy. Randolph and Rudolph are holy terrors who blame everything they do on their younger brother, Tansy, and get away with it. During the course of all of this, Parsley is accidentally turned into a toad by Bombina, the fairy, and wisked away to live by a stream. When the time comes to select the next heir, the king can't decide between the twins (R&R), and ends up sending all three sons on three quests.

Who will win the quests and become king? What is poor Parsley's fate? Buy the book and read for yourself.

Also recommended: All books in the Princess Tales Series, Robin McKinley, Diana Wynne Jones, R.K. Rowling

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Fairy Story
Review: The fairy Bombina has found happiness in the form of a small girl. All is well - until the girl is the inadvertant target of a curse.