What can be more wonderfully magical than having the ability to write and then bringing those stories to life? Our 12-year-old heroine Keira has that power, but she doesn’t know it in the beginning of the book The Princess and the Page by Christina Farley. The book has action, adventure, history, magic and mystery.

Keira belongs to a family of ‘word weavers’ who can bring the stories they write into life by using a magic pen, but this power also brings tragedy for the family as they then become part of the story. Keira’s mother forbids her from writing fiction to protect her from this special power until Keira picks up her grandmother’s magic pen and writes a story for a competition.

The story wins Keira a trip to a beautiful castle in France where she goes to stay with her best friend and mother. But their adventure as modern day princesses soon turns into horror and mystery. The plot infuses real historical events with fairy tale-like adventures, giving just the right kind of combination of fantasy for middle-graders to enjoy this book.

The story starts with a bang and keeps moving at a fast pace as it brings fantasy to life. Keira learns the hard way about the power of words as unknowingly she had given an unhappy ending to her story and now has to find a way to change that to save her life.

The Princess and the Page is a story that will appeal to the fantasy lovers and will even tempt some to pick up the pen and write a story of their own!

Published in Dawn, Young World July 29th, 2017