Princess of the Wild Swans (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Princess of the Wild Swans Kate Quealy-Gainer Zahler, Diane . Princess of the Wild Swans. Harper/HarperCollins, 2012. [224p]. Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-06-20049-2-5 $16.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-06-210202-7 $8.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-6. When the widowed king of Tiramore returns from a trip abroad with a new bride at his side, his five sons are initially enchanted by the woman's beauty; however, their younger sister, Princess Meriel, is suspicious, especially after her brothers are mysteriously shipped off to school in the middle of the night. With the help of her new friends, two common children who also happen to be half-witches, Meriel discovers that the flock of swans that has recently taken residence at the castle's lake are in fact her brothers, that the new queen is a witch intent on destroying the king and his children, and that she wants to rule both Tiramore and the Faerie underworld herself. The loquacious and utterly un-domestic Meriel must sew six shirts from nettles completely in silence in order to break the spell on her brothers and save the kingdom, all while trying to elude the queen's ire. Zahler weaves in a bit of pagan lore with her inclusion of the faerie world, but this is otherwise a mostly faithful retelling of Andersen's "The Wild Swans," here featuring a likable but somewhat bland heroine and a richly detailed setting. Although Meriel is a fairly predictable style of plucky princess with no interest in her princess duties, some of the secondary characters here are wonderfully developed, particularly the half-witches she befriends, and their complicated relationships with the royal family reveal more about Meriel and her family than the princess' unexamined narration. As with her other fairy-tale interpretations (The Thirteenth Princess, BCCB 3/10, etc.), Zahler shines in her ability to set an exquisite scene, and her descriptions of both the luxury of royal life and the more cozy aspects of a commoner's cottage will bewitch fans of Andersen's original. Copyright © 2012 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois