Beauty Sleep

by Cameron Dokey

Overview

"ONCE UPON A TIME"
IS TIMELESS

The Princess Aurore has had an unusual childhood. Cursed at birth, Aurore is fated to prick her finger at the age of sixteen and sleep for one hundred years -- until a prince awakens her with a kiss. So, to protect her, Aurore's loving parents forbid any task requiring a needle.

Unable to sew or embroider like most little princesses, Aurore instead explores the castle grounds and beyond, where her warmth and generosity soon endear her to the townspeople. their devotion to the spirited princess grows as she does.

On her sixteenth birthday, Aurore learns that the impending curse will harm not only her, but the entire kingdom as well. Unwilling to cause suffering, she will embark on a quest to end the evil magic. The princess's bravery will be rewarded as she finds adventure, enchantment, a handsome prince, and ultimately her destiny

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780743428507
Publisher:	Simon Pulse
Publication date:	12/01/2009
Series:	Once upon a Time Series
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	543,140
File size:	740 KB
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Cameron Dokey is the author of nearly thirty young adult novels. Her other fairy tales include The Storyteller’s Daughter, Sunlight and Shadow, and Golden. She has also written the #1 bestselling How Not to Spend Your Senior Year. She lives in Seattle, Washington, with her husband and four cats.

Read an Excerpt

"LITTLE PRINCESS, LOVELY AS THE DAWN, WELL-NAMED AURORE..."

With these seemingly innocent words, the fate of a newborn princess is sealed. For years the king and queen despaired of ever having a child. When Aurore arrives, though the entire kingdom celebrates, not all are overjoyed. They use her christening as an occasion for revenge, and her young life is overshadowed by a curse of death almost as soon as it has begun. Those who can, intervene, but evil has a way of holding fast. A sleep of a hundred years following the pricking of a finger is the best that can be done.

And so Aurore grows up. Forbidden princesslike tasks of embroidery and sewing, she explores the great outdoors, reveling in the flora and fauna that surround her castle home. Then one day she meets a handsome stranger in an enchanted wood and begins an adventure the likes of which she never dreamed of.

This is the story of the Sleeping Beauty, here quite awake and given new voice. Taunted by fate, Aurore soon learns that although she cannot sidestep her own destiny, love itself is actually the most powerful magic of all.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 6-10-Dokey has taken the familiar "Sleeping Beauty" fairy tale and turned it into a fantastical romance guided by adventure and magic with humor and wordplay thrown in for good measure. Overjoyed to be parents, the king and queen forget to invite one of the aunts to the baby's christening. Angered by their thoughtlessness, she curses the child to a certain death-by-pricking at age 16. So begins the tale of Aurore, a beautiful, strong-willed, ill-fated princess. Wary of her destined future, her parents coddle her throughout childhood. When she turns 16 and does not die, the kingdom is beset by strange happenings, and Aurore leaves in order to save it. She sneaks off to La Foret, the forbidden forest, where she meets young Prince Ironheart, nicknamed Charming. Time becomes wobbly at this point, and readers are taken further into a tangle of fantasy and magic. Of course Aurore is the princess that Ironheart has come to rescue. When she finally does prick herself with a needle, the sleep is only moments long-or is it? The characters are realistically drawn, especially Aurore, who, as narrator, is chatty, witty, and easy to like. Though the sequence of events in the forest is somewhat confusing, and the surprise ending wraps up rather quickly, this is an enjoyable read for mature fans of fairy tales.-Angela J. Reynolds, Washington County Cooperative Library Services, Hillsboro, OR Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

In this variation on the Sleeping Beauty story, the characters prove sympathetic and the setting romantic, but the lack of tension makes for a slow read. As in the well-known tale, Aurore’s christening results in a curse that she will die at 17, mitigated by another gift that says she will instead sleep for one hundred years. The plodding first half concerns how Aurore breaks away from her mother’s protectiveness and ventures out into the kingdom. Although her father had named his nephew Oswald as his heir before Aurore was born, the king changes his mind once he sees his daughter’s love for her people. Hints abound that Oswald might seek revenge but, in fact, he and 16-year-old Aurore fall for each other. Before the romance can develop, she must leave the castle, lest the curse on her harm the kingdom. The pace picks up a bit as she enters a magical, forbidden forest and meets Ironheart, a young prince on a quest—to kiss a princess who has been sleeping for a hundred years. More hints suggest Aurore and Ironheart will fall in love, but a plot twist supplies a different ending. Told in a first-person voice, the narrative struggles between a chatty, modern tone far too full of parenthetical phrases, and a stronger, more traditional voice that emerges in the second half. Readers will find more satisfaction in Gail Carson Levine’s light-hearted Princess Tales series or the more complex fairy tale retellings by Donna Napoli. (Fiction 12+)

Kirkus Reviews