Pennyroyal Academy

September 22, 2014
Pennyroyal Academy is no place for a damsel in distress. Inside the boot camp–style training ground, Princesses of the Shield learn to harness the power of “courage, compassion, kindness, and discipline” to battle witches and other foes. Their greatest weapon is in knowing themselves, a difficult task for Evie, who stumbles into her first day without a name, a royal bloodline, or even a proper dress. First-time author Larson, a film and TV writer, uses strikingly crisp
imagery to tell a coming-of-age story rounded out with a gaggle of fast-won friends who provide support and comic relief—like Basil, a boy whose mother so badly wanted a girl he was sent to become a princess instead of a knight. The author playfully nods to classic fairy tales, incorporating a Frog Prince, a witchy stepmother, and a jealous stepsister tearing a ball gown to tatters, but he also imbues the fantasy with an important, affirming message for readers: “You get to decide what you want to be. No one else.” Ages 10–up. Agent: Alexandra Machinist, ICM.

August 1, 2014
Larson weaves a patchwork mix of trite and truly excellent ideas into this chronicle of a young fugitive's first year at princess school. Having neither name nor past and first met racing through an enchanted forest clad only in spider webs, "Cadet Eleven" (Evie for short) finds herself enrolled in a school for combat princesses after rescuing hunky prince Remington from a witch's cage. Under the tutelage of a tiny but fierce Fairy Drillsergeant and other faculty, she learns how to fight witches with "Courage, Compassion, Kindness, and Discipline," along with ball-gown tailoring and other princessly skills. Meanwhile Remington and the other young men (except for one, who enrolls with the princesses because he was raised as the designated girl in a family of 22 boys) are in the school's other wing training to be dragon-killing knights. Romance ensues, as do sharp conflicts when Evie, whose past is illuminated bit by bit in arbitrarily timed visions and revelations, turns out to have been lovingly raised, though not by humans. By the end, Evie has won her way past tests and rivalries, fought several witches (scary ones, too), and caught hints of both her human parentage and a promising destiny among such warrior greats as Cinderella and Snow White. Flashes of inspiration light up a protagonist with plenty of spine, a plot too dependent on set pieces and a colorful but quickly sketched supporting cast. A sequel-worthy debut nonetheless. (Fantasy. 11-13)

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July 1, 2014

Gr 5-8-Pennyroyal Academy trains princesses and knights to battle the witches and dragons that encroach ever more rapidly on the kingdom's citizens. Cadet Eleven (Evie) does not know her name and fears sharing her past, but she desperately wants to succeed as a princess recruit. As she journeys to the Academy to enroll, she escapes a witch's clutches with the help of knight-in-training Remington, a boy who annoys and intrigues Evie. Once arrived, the heroine makes friends in her unit who support her through the Academy's trials despite the malevolent tricks of Malora, a princess candidate whose nastiness puzzles the protagonist. The Academy's final wilderness challenge forces Evie to face her fears and her past. The intriguing premise of Larson's first novel falters under uneven execution. Fantasy readers will indubitably relish the magical kingdom's fearsome witches and dragons, set in an enchanted landscape of pitfalls and beauties. The assigned challenges add a perilous element that advances the story's pacing. However, the way Larson reveals Evie's past is nothing short of confusing. Readers unravel the protagonist's backstory over time, but Larson's purposeful inconsistencies seem bungled rather than cleverly diverting. Erratic characterizations lead to mercurial behavior and odd comings and goings. Most awkward are the abrupt transitions from one scene to the next. The story lacks a narrative flow, making baffling jumps that leave events unconnected. Adventure fantasy readers would be better off with a Shannon Hale novel or Michael Buckley's "Sisters Grimm" series (Abrams).-Caitlin Augusta, Stratford Library Association, CT

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2014
Grades 5-8 Forget the notion of traditional princesses. At Pennyroyal Academy, princesses are trained to fight witches and save kingdoms, and, yes, knights learn to slay dragons. Which brings us to Evie's dilemma: she is training to be a princess, yet she was raised by dragons and was brought to the academy by a dragon-slaying knight wannabe. Larson has crafted a dark Grimm-like fairy tale, with teens training to defeat evil, save villages, and find their own identities in the process. Familiar names like Cinderella and Snow White dot the landscape, while tongue-in-cheek characters like Rumpledshirtsleeves and the Fairy Drillsergeant are part of a no-nonsense faculty charged with readying the girls for combat. Yet the focus and detailed character development is on the young women, their hopes and dreams (sometimes dreadfully scary), their real fears, and their disappointments in themselves, their friends, and the adults around them. Since the book ends with some of the princesses and knights selected to return for another school year, Larson has left the door open for a welcome second year at Pennyroyal with Evie and her friends.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)