This book is based on the brothers Grimm's fable, The Goose Girl. However, the author added some very unique things that make the book what it is. The book begins in the lovely kingdom of Kildenree. Anidori-kiladra Talianna Isilee, Crown princess of Kildenree has just been born. Anidori is a strange newborn. She is not born wide eyed and full of wonder, she is born with her eyes shut tight and nobody can provoke her to open them.
After three long days and two long nights of healers and her mother begging her to open her eyes and show them she was normal a woman comes dressed in green in the middle of the night. Her aunt. She picks up the child and speaks to her. She tells stories until she opens her big eyes and begins to listens.
Ani (as her aunt calls her) is practically raised by her aunt and loves to listen to her speak. Her aunt teaches her many things but one thing in particular is how to speak to the birds. Swans mostly but Ani picks up the others language fast. She ia told of how horses are born with a word on their tongue. They are born knowing their name and if you are there and you here them say it you may speak with that horse. Her aunt tells her tales about the three launguages. People-speaking(being able to persuade other people), Animal-speaking, and nature-speaking which which was lost or forgotten a long time past.
Her mother notices how her daughter prefers the company of the swans or her horse Falanda(she knows his name and so she can speak with him)and decides to send her aunt away. Years later Ani is still not as normal as what the Queen would like so she agrees to have her sent to be the new queen of Bayern. Bayern is a neighboring kingdom of Kildenree and is in need of a queen. Ani is not exited to go but her lady-in-waiting, Selia is anxious to leave. So they set off knowing they will never see Kildenree again.
As they draw near the destination strange things start happening. Things like Ani almost getting knocked into a waterfall or almost falling into a gorge. Ani doesn't think these are accidents. She suspects someone is trying to get rid of her...and she's right. People who are part of the group that was escorting her to bayern( I'm not going to say who)are trying to kill her so they can take over. They almost succeed but she escapes and falls helplessly into the hands of fate which kindly take her to a woman named Glisa and her son fin who help her. Since she is probably being searched for she changes her name to Isi. She travels from Gilsa's house to the palace to see is the people who tried to kill her are there. They are and one of them is dressed in the princess's clothes! They have convinced everyone that that girl is in fact the Princess. Instead of giving her self up by saying she is the Princess she requests the job of the goose girl and is that request is(of coarse) granted.
Isi makes many friends while she works as the goose girl but has difficulty keeping her identity a secret. For one thing she has fair hair. You might think that that is no big deal but it is. people from Kildenree have fair colored hair and Bayer folk have dark hair. She meets a strange man one day and they become very close. Isi's strong spirit and brave heart help her as she tries to gain back her title and learn the new and surprising talent she acquires.
I loved this book because there was surprisingly little romance in it and way more fantasy then you'd expect. I love the magical aspects of the book and also how you can tie everything back to real life. Such as the people-speaking I think the author is telling us that people who are good speakers and are persuasive have power over us. Also if you think about how they treat Ani/Isi because she's different I think there's a message there to. Probably about how just because someone is different doesn't mean they aren't people.
Although some people think this book is slow it is still one of my favorite books and I recommend it to everyone.
1 comment:
Aww! I loved this book! :) Great review!
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