Hamster Princess Series -- Book Reviews

Disclosure: Penguin Random House Books gave me copies of these books free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

I am always looking for princess books with not your pink frilly princesses. I want Hazel to have strong role models and see that girls do not have wait around for a man to save them. Well the Hamster Princess is one of those princesses. I will admit that I was not sure I would like them and for that matter that Hazel would (and she was worried she wouldn't). However we loved them. She begged me to read more than one chapter each night and often chose to just read these books and not the usual various picture books with a chapter or two of the chapter book. The first book Harriet the Invincible by Ursula Vernon is based on the story of Sleeping Beauty. 

In Harriet the Invincible, Princess Harriet is cursed at birth by the evil fairy that she will get poked by a hamster wheel at age twelve. The good fairies present change it to her falling asleep until a prince kisses her and a few other "helpful" things. The curse makes Harriet invincible until she turns twelve. She takes advantage of her invincibility and does things she wants like sword fighting, cliff diving and fighting bad guys. She gets quite the reputation for her heroic behavior. However she does turn twelve and the curse does happen with many twists. As the reader sees the story changes immensely from the traditional Sleeping Beauty story. 

The second book, Of Mice and Magic, by Ursula Vernon is based on Twelve Dancing Princesses.  A fairy approaches Harriet who is rather bored and looking for an adventure even though she is no longer invincible. The fairy asks Harriet to help break the twelve mice princesses' curse. 

Harriet decides to take the challenge. She enters the very interesting mice king's castle. With the help of an invisibility cloak, she manages to discover what is happening and works to break the curse and free the princesses from their castle prison. 

We really enjoyed the adventures of Princess Harriet and the fun humorous twists in these tales. Hazel cannot wait for the third book to come out. It is due out in October. This is a fun princess series with animals as people and a princess who does not like to be "princessly". They are great books for anyone to enjoy and offer a great role model for young girls everywhere.