The Ordinary Princess

Never thought I would find this. Read it when I was 8 years old and I am now 45. Had forgotten the title and author. All i remembered was the poem, “Lavender’s Blue, Rosemary…”

Love this book, but this edition has rather oldish, brownish pages. Hence deduction of one star. Unusual book from M.M. Kaye who's known for her whodunnits and historical novels based around the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 and the the Second Anglo- Afghan war set in colonial India

This was the first novel I ever bought with my own pocket money (aged eight), I read and re-read it to pieces, and now I'm reading it in instalments at bedtime to my six-year-old daughter. She is soaking in every word, and doesn't want me to stop. Set in the fictional kingdom of Phantasmorania, a royal family tries inviting fairies to the christening of their beautiful seventh baby daughter, only for one bad-tempered fairy to get caught in a traffic jam and crossly give the child the gift of Ordinariness. Princess Amy is not worried about this as she grows up, but once she is of marriageable age it creates a major diplomatic issue. The king decides to hire a dragon, and lock her away in a tower to be rescued by an over-excited prince. Amy thinks this is nonsense. So she runs away..... It is beautifully written, it contains a lot of gentle mickey-taking humour that knocks the current crop of plastic Disney princesses out of the water, and this new edition contains an introduction from M. M. Kaye on how she came to write the book (after a binge-read of Andrew Lang fairy tales, apparently), and M. M. Kaye's original pencil-sketch illustrations, which are different to the ones in my childhood edition, and are absolutely lovely. Reading age 8+ years.

This is one of the loveliest books I've ever read. M.M.Kaye wrote it for her granddaughter, to encourage her that not only petite blondes can be princesses and be happy ever after. She was well ahead of her time: Today it is common sense that children's books should not just repeat old role-models over and over. But when she wrote it, it was a declaration of love and devotion to her grandchild just as much as a (subtle) declaration of independecy for all women. If you read it that way, it adds a deeper dimension to the reading experience. (Good also for grown-ups)

Incroyable rapidité d'envoi, mon livre était dans ma boite à lettres quasiment juste après que j'ai cliqué Ok sur mon ordinateur. :-) C'était parfait. Merci

A really well-written, charming story about a princess who falls decidedly outside of the fairytale-princess camp, but still ends up with her happily-ever-after. I ordered this copy because I lost my original, and I was rather disappointed when it arrived, as the illustrations were done by a lady named Faith Jaques (not M.M. Kaye, who did the cover illustration and the illustrations in my version--there's nothing necessarily wrong with them; I just prefer Ms. Kaye's style and execution). On the flip side, I very much enjoyed being able to read the British version of the text (my copy was American, so I suppose some of the phrasing and words in the original manuscript were edited for clarity).

M. M. Kaye's "The Ordinary Princess" is a delightful book: it offers all the romance of traditional fairy tales, but without the two-dimensional characters. Princess Amy is anything but regal: born the seventh princess of the Phantasmoranian royal family, she alone is ordinary (the priceless [if misunderstood] gift of a tempermental fairy). While her six older sisters are woodenly splendid (as every princess "ought" to be), Amy is irrepressibly unconventional: instead of flowing golden hair, Amy is a mousy brunette; instead of an elegant, rose-leaf complexion, Amy has freckles. While her sisters play mildly with golden balls and embroider, Amy tears her exquisite royal dresses climbing trees. Amy is happy as she is, but no one knows what to do with such an unprincesslike princess, least of all the princes of neighboring kingdoms who come looking for a bride. When the befuddled king and queen concoct a ridiculous scheme to marry her off unseen, Amy's ordinariness saves her from a fate worse than death---boredom trapped in an endless marriage to a dull prince. Amy, not afflicted with royal compliance and predictability, runs away. So begins Amy's tale. Her adventures as a kitchen maid in the palace of the kingdom next door amuse and delight the reader while teaching valuable life lessons. She learns that being true to yourself is better than pretending to be what other people expect, especially when other people expect silly things. I love this book: when the copy I had as a child was destroyed in a fire, I searched high and low for a replacement, but I was unable to find that edition. This is the book I eventually chose, and it has the same layout and the author's charming line illustrations throughout the text that I remember. My one beef with this edition is the cover: the edition I loved in childhood had M. M. Kaye's artwork on the cover, and this one has another artist's work. First of all, this cover art doesn't match the pictures inside; secondly, the girl on this cover is too young to be Princess Amy. However, I am so grateful to Penguin imprints Viking and Puffin for keeping this treasure in print that I'm willing to overlook the cover flub and highly recommend this endearingly imaginative little story.