Nobody's Princess

Nobody's Princess by Esther M. Friesner, 2007 Random House

     Growing up Helen was always told she was beautiful. When she learns her beauty will gain her different privileges and freedoms that her brothers and sister will never experience. Not only will she be queen of Sparta, but Helen has been blessed by Aphrodite with beauty like no other.
     She learns that beauty will get her anything she wants, but a little persistence will get it for her on her own terms. Helen decides no one will control her and learns to fight just like her brothers. When her younger sister is sent to her wedding, Helen and her brothers go along. They are side-tracked when their uncle sends news of a wild boar rampaging his kingdom.
     In their uncle's hall Helen meets another woman who has learned to fight like a man--though Atalanta hasn't hidden her skill and fights alongside the heroes. Helen befriends the young woman and learns more than just fighting skills from her.
     After disaster at her uncle's court and learning that Atalanta not only doesn't think badly of her, but respects her Helen and her brothers begin their long journey home. They stop at Delphi and the Pythia at Apollo's temple from whence Helen must find her own way home. Helen refuses to allow the world to make her decisions, and finds herself on her own quest.
     In a time and place where women are considered to be property of men, Helen of Sparta challenges the people around her, from her brothers to a complete stranger, to look at the pretty girl from Sparta as more than just her face. Through hard work and persistence Helen becomes friends with a legend and earns the respect of the heroes around her. Nobody's Princess is a story of going after your dreams despite the difficulties and readers in later elementary school and early middle school will enjoy it.

The Secret of the Rose

The Secret of the Rose by Sarah L. Thomson, 2006 Greenwillow

     In the summer of 1592 Rosalind Archer and her young brother, Robert called Robin, leave their country home for London and the safety of their father's friends. Their father has been arrested as a Papist and imprisoned under the Protestant government. The children are stunned to find their father's friends too have been arrested for their Catholic faith.
     Searching for security and hoping to see their father in Newgate prison, Rosalind and Robin meed Christopher Marlowe who finds them honest work and a safe place to stay--the only problem is he doesn't know Rosalind is a girl. Hiding as a boy is the only way Rosalind can be safe in London, but if she is discovered she faces rejection from society and worse. Marlowe has secrets of his own--secrets that can put both Rosalind and Marlowe himself in death's grasp.
     Keeping herself and her brother safe and alive are all Rosalind hopes for, but when Marlowe's secrets threaten to expose her own, Rosalind must make a daring choice.
     Thomson creates a bright and vivid image of late Elizabethan England, complete with the dangers a young woman faced without her family's protection and supported by facts of the day. Rosalind's story is directed toward younger readers (ages 10+) and can be enjoyed by any historical reader.

Cloaked

Cloaked by Alex Flinn, 2011 HarperTeen

     Johnny Marco repairs shoes in a hotel in South Beach, Florida. His family's shoe repair shop is struggling, so Johnny works his summer away helping his mother to make it through. Johnny's best friend Meg works in her family's coffee shop across the hall. When a princess from Aloria, a small country somewhere in Europe, stays at the hotel Johnny and the hotel's pool boy are entranced by the beautiful girl.
     One night Princess Victoriana stops by the Marco family shoe repair with a mission for Johnny: repair her favorite shoes, and deliver them personally. Johnny is excited as any seventeen-year-old boy would be, but when he returns the shoe the princess has a bigger task, and more complicated. He has trouble believing that Victoriana's brother has been turned into a frog and kidnapped by the local witch in Aloria, but when she offers Johnny marriage and financial security he is willing to go out on a limb for the crazy beauty.
     Until she presents him with magical tools, Johnny doesn't believe her brother could have been transformed, let alone transported from Europe to southern Florida. With a magical cloak and earphones that allow him to communicate with once-human animals, Johnny travels to the Florida Keys in search for the missing prince. There he discovers a talking fox named Todd who asks Johnny to complete a task before giving up the information.
     After helping Todd with his task, being kidnapped by the evil witch who transformed Victoriana's brother, being rescued by Meg, fighting giants, and being chased by a homicidal maniac on a motorbike, Johnny returns to Victoriana with her brother in tow. But his adventures didn't prepare him for not wanting to marry the princess.
     With traces of The Elves and the Shoemaker, The Frog Prince, and several other fairy tales Cloaked is a fast-paced story where the characters fall from one crisis into another. Readers of all ages will wonder: What will Johnny chose when his quest is over?

Mockingjay

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, 2010 Scholastic Press

     After she's taken from the Arena in her second Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen is spirited to the long-lost District 13. There she recovers and learns she is to be the face of the revolution. The only problem is President Coin seems to want to maintain the status quo rather than improve the lives of Panem's people.
      When Peta appears to be supporting the government, Katniss is hard-pressed to protect him from the eradication Coin has planned. Only by agreeing to be the Mockingjay can she save him, and so begins Katniss's activism.
      She disobeys orders and fights for the people of her nation, district by district her honest actions win over the people. When Katniss is nearly killed during the siege of the Capitol's final stronghold the people rise to defend her--she has not challenged them, but given the dissatisfied a point to rally behind.
     When the time comes to battle the Capitol within its own bounds Katniss is held back. Haymitch notes that she is a tool, one with an expiration date if she does not support the new regime whole-heartedly. When given the chance to defect and take matters into her own hands the Mockingjay takes her tribe into the heart of battle and fights for the future.
     Like the books preceding it, Mockingjay is a bloody battle for supremacy, rather than subtle maneuvering and manipulation with the Hunger Games Panem breaks out into full-blown civil war and rebellion. The story is not meant for young children or readers who are uncomfortable with gore--it is more suited to older teens and young adults with its graphic violence.

A Conspiracy of Kings

A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner, 2010 Eos

     Sophos has been exiled to his father's island property to learn how to be king. His uncle gives up on the scholar and marries to get an heir. Meanwhile Sounis is still at war with both Attolia and his barons. When Sophos is kidnapped and believes his family murdered the young man is forced to harden into a warrior.
     While Sounis is at war with his rebelling barons, his nephew is hidden on the conspiracy leader's estate serving as a slave: building rock walls to create terraces across the landscape, mending tools, and any other work the weather allows. As summer transitions into fall the king's armies begin to falter and Sophos's father visits his slavemaster.
     At first Sophos hopes to catch his father's eye and be freed, but when his father doesn't recognize him, Sophos realizes he must escape. In the midst of his plannings he discovers the baron plans to kill the king's brother; if his plan to escape will succeed, Sophos finds he must save his father from certain death. Sophos's father is glad to see his so alive, and eagerly agrees to the plans which will allow him to survive the conspiracy leader's trap.
     Once they escape Sophos discovers his uncle has died and he is Sounis. The new king is hesitant of his path, but certain he must speak to his old friend Eugenides who has become king of Attolia. Traveling in secret to evade his rebellion, Sophos makes his way through Eddis to Attolia. The Gen he discovers there is distant and removed from their previous association, more concerned with the well-being of his country than maintaining his friendship. Sophos doesn't know how to deal with this apparent loss of his closest friend, but through conversation with Eddis and Attolia (Helen and Irene) he discovers Attolis is acting in the best interests of the entire peninsula, while Gen wants to assist his friend as best he can.
     After much conversation and debate Sophos manages a treaty with Attolis which will cement his role as Sounis. Attolis will send a select group of troops to set down the rebellion, and it is up to the new Sounis to use his tools properly. But when the Mede Empire invades, all bets are off and Sounis prepares to fight to the last.
     Throughout the political maneuvering and struggle to live, Sophos hopes for a romance with the Queen of Eddis and manages to rekindle the friendship he once had with Gen, and through him a friendly respect for Irene, Queen Attolia. He grows into his role as king as he fights to become Sounis and the change from the Sophos of The Thief is remarkable. Readers of all ages can enjoy the vivid characters and sharp contrasts of A Conspiracy of Kings, though some political dealings are better appreciated by older readers.