Princess Academy

Princess Academy, Book 1

By: Shannon Hale

Narrated by: Laura Credidio

Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

Miri lives on a mountain where, for generations, her ancestors have quarried stone and lived a simple life. Then word comes that the king's priests have divined her small village the home of the future princess. In a year's time, the prince himself will come and choose his bride from among the girls of the village.

The king's ministers set up an academy on the mountain, and every teenage girl must attend and learn how to become a princess. Miri soon finds herself confronted with a harsh academy mistress, bitter competition among the girls, and her own conflicting desires to be chosen and win the heart of her childhood best friend. But when bandits seek out the academy to kidnap the future princess, Miri must rally the girls together and use a power unique to the mountain dwellers to save herself and her classmates.

©2005 Shannon Hale (P)2013 Full Cast Audio and AudioGO

Critic reviews

"Shannon Hale writes deft, lyrical, wonderful fantasy." (Holly Black, author of The Spiderwick Chronicles and Tithe)

Charming and Captivating - Great voice and sound!

This book was a childhood favorite of mine, and with all honesty, it has held up beautifully in the decade and a half since it's original release. But I guess fairytales do tend to be timeless. I will say I didn't even know that this book was part of a series until I found it again on Audible. It's just that good. It stands up by itself, like all individual books in series should do. I will admit I am excited to look into maybe continuing more now that I know they exist, though. There is just so much charm in this book, from the setting, to the characters, to the way the words are put together. Everything works together so wonderfully to create an immersive and exciting experience. I absolutely loved how they sang the chapter captions as they're supposed to be sung. Actually, everything about the voice acting and sound design for this one is near perfection. I could nit-pick here and there, but that's really all it would be. This book is just as captivating to me now as a young adult as it was to me as a little girl. Definitely give it a listen!

EXCEPTIONAL

Love it!!!!!!!!

it was such a great book I can't find a way to describe it in words

A pleasing story

At first I was puzzled by the singing between chapters and I was skeptical about whether I would enjoy the story. I was pleasantly surprised. The singing woks well. The story is well-woven and flows nicely. There are unique enough characteristics that readers who enjoy the colourful story-telling of Harry Potter may enjoy this book. Well narrated by the cast.

A pleasant surprise

Such a sweet story! I decided to read this book after Melanie Kilsby, on her YouTube channel "YA Christian Books and More" gave it a glowing recommendation, and I was not disappointed. While it did take me a few chapters to get truly invested, I eventually fell in love and really looked forward to the next chance I would get to listen more. (Having listened to this on audio, please pardon if I spell anything wrong because of that.)

Some of my favorite things were Miri's friendship with Britta, the whole concept of quarry speech, the themes about the importance of education and literacy, and the sweet little romance. I found myself cheering and being proud of the characters on several occasions, and when the climax of the story came, I couldn't stop listening until the story was done.

My official rating is 4.5 since it did take a few chapters for the story to really grab me, but otherwise, I can't find much else to complain about. It was a charming story with an extremely satisfying ending.

The audiobook was a recorded with a full cast who even sang all the songs. I loved it!

Content Advisory:

Language: None

Violence: Much of the discipline the girls receive when they first start going to the Princess Academy is harsh and unfair compared to the supposed "infraction". They are whacked across the palm with a stick, and get locked in a dark closet with a rat for hours on end and sometimes are forgotten in there.

Someone is hurt by a fall in the quarry. The injury is not described.

Probably the "worst" of the violence comes towards the end when the girls are, for spoilery reasons, treated badly via being tied up, threatened, and some of them are gagged. One of them is even backhanded across the face by a man for saying the wrong thing. There are other threats of violence against the girls, including threats of neck breaking (which doesn't happen, but for a while it seems like it could). Some of the villains get killed in non-descriptive ways, mainly getting shot with arrows. Brief mentions of blood in the snow, but nothing graphic or upsetting. Someone dies by falling off a cliff and disappearing into the mist far below.

Sexual content (or lack thereof): There is a slow-growing attraction between a young boy and girl. It never gets "sexual" or even becomes an official romance, but there are tingly feelings, a kiss on the cheek, and much emotional confusion going on. The other little romance that happens features no more than a hand kiss and is just very sweet. I also feel I should mention that attraction between these couples is NOT insta-love (thank goodness :p), but grows slowly over the course of years.

Worldviews: While not featured heavily, there is mention of a "Creator God". This "Creator God" has priests who make a prediction that is crucial to the storyline. It is mentioned briefly only once that a character prays during an intense moment, but there was no indication to whom the character was praying, or what was prayed.

Narrators

I liked the story. I read it as a kid and wanted to revisit it. The story is still interesting but I don’t care for the narration. I wish it was just read and not so “acted” - I think my biggest critique is that I really didn’t like the voices for the young girls and the protagonist. They all sound like they’re 8 year olds. The protagonist is 14 and there were plenty of older girls, it was jarring hearing them all sound so babyish. And I absolutely despise the signing/poetry recital at the beginning of every chapter.

But the story was interesting. I like it as a stand alone and won’t be continuing with the series unless they are also free. I just can’t get over how high pitched most of the voices are.

I absolutely love the full cast

This narration has me hooked on full cast audiobooks. I've loved this story since I was young and hearing it brought to life like this was a wonderful experience. Some reviews mentioned the music between chapters, I actually really enjoyed this aspect of the reading! It suits the ephraphs in the physical book perfectly.

good good good

listened for hours love all the voices and the narrator makes it so much better

Enjoyable full cast production with ensemble

This has got to be one of the most enjoyable full cast audiobooks I’ve ever listened to!

So we’ll done

Was very entertaining and was narrated very nicely. This is my second time reading and I love the narrator!

Slow beginning with exciting ending.

Slow pace until chapter 13. A little bit annoying if you a grown up, but is getting better toward the end. A good read for teenage girls since it is about the friendship and first love.