The Wide-Awake Princess

By E.D. Baker
Lexile = 890

Take every fairy tale you've ever heard, throw them all into one forest, and you have The Wide Awake Princess. Basically, this is the story of Sleeping Beauty's sister, who, after the disaster of her sister's whole spinning wheel curse, is blessed with the gift that no magic can touch her. She must live as a normal person in a world where everyone, it seems, has been given the gift of beauty, strength, or some other great power.

To further complicate the matter, when Annabelle gets close to others, the enchantment they have been blessed with disappears. So, if a princess has been given unmatched beauty, she avoids Annabelle or she turns rather plain. This means that Annabelle is usually quite lonely.

Despite all efforts of the kingdom, Sleeping Beauty does prick her finger on a tiny spinning wheel and the entire kingdom falls asleep. Because the magic cannot touch Annabelle, she stays awake and goes off on a quest to save her family's kingdom.

During the quest, Annabelle encounters Hansel and Gretel, Beauty and the Beast, assorted dwarfs, gnomes and tons of fairies. A bit confusing at times, but it all sucked me in. Obviously, this book will appeal to all fans of the Frog Princess, but also Ella Enchanted and Just Ella fans.