Interview with Diane Zahler, Author of A True Princess

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Diane Zahler

Diane Zahler, author of A True Princess, has loved tales of fairies and magic since before she was old enough to read. She has worked in the children’s room at a public library, in children’s book publishing, and as an elementary and high school textbook writer. The Thirteenth Princess, her first novel for young readers, was published in 2010. She lives with her husband and dog in an old farmhouse in the Harlem Valley that is held together with duct tape and magic spells. Diane’s website is: www.dianezahler.com.

Here, she answers a few questions for Mother Daughter Book Club.com. Don’t forget to check out my review of A True Princess and leave a comment for your chance to win a copy.

Can you tell us a little about your new novel, A True Princess?

DZ: A True Princess is loosely based on the Hans Christian Andersen tale “The Princess and the Pea,” and its dangerous elves were inspired by Goethe’s poem “The Erl-King.”  It’s the story of Lilia, a girl brought up by a shepherd and his family. She leaves the farm to travel north to find her family, and her two friends, Kai and Karina, make the trip with her. Their journey takes them through the dark and dangerous Bitra Forest, where they stumble into the kingdom of the evil Elf-King and his beautiful daughter. When Kai is taken prisoner by the elves, Lilia knows that she must find a way to save him. Her quest takes her to a castle in search of a magical jewel – but another search is taking place at the castle, a search for a true princess.

Were you a fan of fairy tales as a child?  What is your favorite?

DZ: I loved fairy tales and fantasy. I read all the Andrew Lang fairy tale collections—the Yellow Book of Fairy Tales, the Red Book, the Blue Book—if there had been a Puce or Vermillion Book, I’d have read those! “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” which inspired my first novel, The Thirteenth Princess, was always one of my favorite stories.

Have you learned anything about yourself through your characters?

DZ: When writing both The Thirteenth Princess and A True Princess, I reacquainted myself with the girl I had been when I first discovered fairy tales. That girl craved magic in her own life and found it in the books she read. I realized that the longing for magic has never really left me. Now, though, I can find magic not only in the books I read but in the books I write.

What has been the most challenging aspect of writing the book?  Was it difficult to re-imagine “The Princess and the Pea” to fit in with how you visualized the story?

DZ: A True Princess was the first book I’ve been able to write without having to stop to do other projects. I found the story flowed very easily—though that’s not to say it didn’t have to be revised. And re-revised! The story only uses “The Princess and the Pea” as a jumping-off point: it also includes Nordic myth, heroic falcons, fierce wolves, a dog who was based on my own dog, and a touch of romance. I’m a fan of heroines who take charge of their own destinies, and Lilia does just that. As the story begins, she doesn’t know who she is or where she is going, but as her quest progresses she discovers more than that: she learns the extent of her own strength.

Can you share a few details about your next project?

DZ: I’ve finished a third fairy-tale novel called Princess of the Wild Swans. It’s based on “The Wild Swans,” a story that both the Grimm Brothers and the Hans Christian Andersen treated. Watch for it in 2012! And I’m hard at work on a fourth novel, also based on a fairy tale.

Book Review: A True Princess by Diane Zahler

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A True Princess imageThis week I’m excited to offer a couple of posts about a new fantasy book for middle readers. It’s called A True Princess by Diane Zahler, and it should delight young readers who like Ella Enchanted, The Goose Girl, and other retold fairy tales.

Take a look at my review below, then enter a comment to win a copy compliments of the publisher, HarperCollins. The contest is open to residents of the U.S. and Canada only. It will be open until midnight (PST), Tuesday, February 15. (Please note: the giveaway is closed.) Check in tomorrow for a Q and A with the author, Diane Zahler, where she shares some of her own favorite fairy tales and talks about writing A True Princess. Here’s my review:

There are many rules to define a true princess, and Lilia seems to break all of them. Breaking the first one, A True Princess Does Not Eavesdrop, is how Lilia finds out that her stepmother plans to sell her as a serving girl to the miller. It’s a fateful moment, because that’s when she decides to run away to the north. As a baby she was found floating in a basket down the river from that direction, and she longs to discover who she truly is.

Joining her on the journey are her adopted sister and brother, Karina and Kai, who love Lilia like a true sister. Together the three face the perils of the journey, including an encounter with the Elf King, and discover many things about themselves along the way, only one of which is Lilia’s heritage.

A True Princess by Diane Zahler combines elements of several tales—The Princess and the Pea and old Norse legends—to weave a delightful story of self-discovery. Lilia is both curious and courageous. She is also fiercely determined to do what’s right and find a place where she at last fits in.

Even though she seems more mature than her twelve years of life, especially since a decade of them was spent on an isolated farm, I easily overlooked that as I got caught up in Lilia’s grand adventure. I recommend A True Princess for mother-daughter book clubs with girls aged eight to 12.

Book Review: The Pink Locker Society: Best Kept Secret by Debra Moffitt

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The Pink Locker Society: Best Kept Secret imageThe Pink Locker Society is back up and running after being shut down in the first book of the series: Only Girls Allowed.

In this book, Best Kept Secret, Jemma and her friends secretly continue to answer questions that pre-teens and early teens have about the PBBs—periods, bras and boys. In addition to keeping their advice web going, the girls are also debating the modern implications of a “Sadie Hawkins” dance and it’s origins in giving unattractive girls a chance to find a husband. Bet, one of the four girls in the society, does a video segment for her school on what girls, boys and adults feel about the Backwards Dance, which is their school’s version of Sadie Hawkins.

Jemma also is trying to get up the nerve to ask Forrest, who she’s had a crush on forever, to the dance. But there’s conflict when Forrest shows interest in one of her friends. The Best Kept Secret keeps The Pink Locker Society series humming. Issues to discuss include Title IX and its effect on women in sports, how friendship can be affected when two girls like the same boy, and how traditions may evolve to keep up with modern realities.

Author Moffitt is the kids’ editor at Kids Health.org, so she really has her finger on the pulse of the kinds of questions girls ask and what they want to know more about. Answers to all the questions asked in the book are answered in the back, and more resources can be found at Kids Health.org. This series is a good way for moms and daughters to broach topics that could otherwise be awkward to talk about. I recommend it for girls aged nine to 13 and their moms.

Book Review: Real Mermaids Don’t Wear Toe Rings by Hèléne Boudreau

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Real Mermaids Don't Wear Toe Rings imageAt 13, Jade has a lot to deal with: she’s still getting over her mother’s drowning death a year ago, she just got her first period, and she might have a crush on a guy who surely thinks she’s weird. But nothing prepares her for what happens when she takes a warm bath in salt water to ease her period cramps. For it is then that Jade turns from a normal teenager with average concerns into a freaked-out girl with a mermaid’s tale.

Real Mermaids Don’t Wear Toe Rings by Hèléne Boudreau is at turns light-hearted and serious as it explores how Jade’s life evolves along with her ability to walk on two legs. On the one hand, Jade and her dad discuss mermaid legends and try to find out how she can go to school, be with her friends and appear normal in her everyday life. On the other, Jade discovers something about her mother’s drowning accident that points to a dark side of the mermaid life.

While at times Jade seems more like 16 than 13, for the most part her tale is fun to follow. Part comedy, part adventure, part fantasy and part mystery, it’s entirely a story to enjoy. I recommend it for girls aged nine to 13.

Book Review: Contagion by Joanne Dahme

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For as long as she can remember, Rose has been promised to Patrick Dugan, a liaison forged between their two prominent Philadelphia Irish families. Once married to him she finds herself mistress of a grand home and a staff of servants.

But their marriage also began with sadness, as Rose’s parents both died from typhoid and Patrick’s parents were felled by accidents. Now the threat of typhoid is being raised again—by Patrick who wants a lucrative city contract to build filtration ponds to prevent it. The city waterworks bureau, and its dedicated guardian, Sean, maintains the water can be safe without the ponds if pollution can be kept from it.

The conflict spills into Rose’s life when a series of threatening letters warn her husband to stop his efforts. Then her best friend Nellie is murdered. With the help of the police and of Sean, Rose searches for Nellie’s murderer and puts her own life in danger in the process.

Contagion by Joanne Dahme is set in the late 1800s, a time when cities were trying to figure out how to accommodate industrial growth while maintaining the integrity of their water supply. Through Rose’s eyes we see both the beauty and grandeur of Philadelphia at the time and the seedier side of life that was reality for many workers. It was also a time of political and police corruption that often led to back-room deals that had little to do with the population’s welfare.

Part historical fiction, part mystery, Contagion will have you wanting to savor the details while you also long to flip pages furiously and find out what happens. I recommend it for mother-daughter book clubs with girls aged 14 and up.

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Reading and Technology: A Study from Scholastic, Inc.

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This month in my newsletter I referred to a recent study by Scholastic, Inc. that discovered a few interesting things about kids, reading, and their parents’ concerns about technology. The Scholastic Study found that from age 6 – 17, the time kids spend reading books for fun declines, while the time they spend going online for fun and using a cell phone to text or talk increases.

In the same study, parents expressed “concern that the use of electronic and digital devices negatively affects the time kids spend reading books (41%), doing physical activities (40%), and engaging with family (33%).”

But what is surprising is that more time with technology doesn’t have to point to a decline in reading. Scholastic says “the study also found indications that technology could be a positive motivator to get kids reading — 57 percent of kids (age 9-17) say they are interested in reading an eBook, and a third of children age 9-17 say they would read more books for fun if they had access to eBooks on an electronic device. This includes kids who read 5-7 days per week (34%), 1 to 4 days per week (36%) and even those who read less than one day per week (27%).”

While I’m still happily turning paper pages in bound books, and so are my daughters, I’m optimistic that reading devices of many kinds can actually increase reading and possibly have a positive effect on literacy. My local library is betting on that too. They are now holding classes that let people test-drive several models of e-readers before they decide if they want to buy one. They also feature Library2Go, a service in Oregon that lets patrons download books to an e-reader. As with regular library books, the electronic versions have a due date and disappear off the device when that date comes around. The library is also experimenting with a system that would allow patrons to check out e-readers.

It’s hard to imagine all this will go away even if some of us will hold onto paper and ink books until they are pried out of our cold, dead hands. As much as I love the physical aspects of a book, I’m not actively against e-readers. I’ve even added an iPad (gotta love Apple!) to my gift wish list this year, so I may soon get to see for myself how reading with technology will affect my reading habits.

Read more about the Scholastic study at their website.

Read a blog post by author Christina Katz as she reflects on how technology has and has not changed her reading habits.

Game Review: Bananagrams

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Bananagrams imageI love puzzles almost as much as I love books. When I see crosswords, Sudoku grids and word search puzzles, my fingers start to itch and I scan the clues even if I don’t have a pencil in my hand and don’t intend to solve it.

Solving puzzles is mostly a solitary activity, one I like to do on my own without input. So I was particularly please when I recently discovered a game that is like a puzzle for multiple players. It’s called Bananagrams, and you can play in groups of two all the way up to 7 or more, so it’s easy to be social while fulfilling your puzzling urge.

Here’s how it works. Each player gets a certain number of tiles, each printed with a letter of the alphabet. Each player then has to create words with their tiles in any combination they can come up with. It’s sort of like a cross between Scrabble and Boggle. Every word is distinct, but every player builds her own word puzzle instead of everybody building on everybody else’s words.

What I really like about Banaagrams is that you can change the words you’ve created as you go along. For instance, once when I played I built the word player into my puzzle. Then I decided I could use the “e” and “r” in another place to help me use more tiles. So I just took those two letters off and used them elsewhere.

It’s a creative way to keep you thinking about all the possibilities of which words letters can create. My husband, daughter and I had a great time playing Bananagrams. It took a lot of concentration at first, but once we got the hang of it, it was really challenging and a lot of fun. I also liked that there are no scores to add up or records to keep (you could add a scoring system easily is you’re competitive.) I recommend it as a family game or as an activity to add to your book club meetings.

The game comes in a bright yellow, banana-shaped pouch that’s easy to pack and take with you on a vacation. It also takes up very little room on your game shelf. I have seen Bananagrams for sale in many bookstores. You can also check it out on the company’s website: http://www.bananagrams-intl.com.

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Book Review: Jane and the Raven King by Stephen Chambers

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Jane and the Raven King imageJane knows something is up when she spots a squirrel packing a suitcase. Things get even stranger when she realizes that birds aren’t singing and all the wild animals seem to be leaving. As adults get more and more distracted by the technology all around, Jane discovers the Raven King is behind all the weird events. He wants to take over the world, and Jane may just be the one to stop him.

Jane and the Raven King by Stephen Chambers introduces us to a strange world where animals can talk and humans are vulnerable to being controlled by cell phones, televisions and computers. Jane and a handful of other children are the only ones who resist falling under the spell. Led by an old blind man, who becomes a cat-like creature in the underworld, Jane and the others are intent on stopping the Raven King from taking over everything and using it for his evil purposes.

Imaginative and adventuresome, Jane and the Raven King creates a fantasy world where Jane has to rely on her wits and her desire to do what’s right to save everyone and everything she knows. She’s a strong girl who calls on her grandmother’s spirit to help her when she needs it. I recommend it for girls aged nine to 12.

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