George, Jessica Day.
PRINCESS OF THE MIDNIGHT BALL
New York : Bloomsbury, 2009
IL YA
ISBN 1599903229

(2 booktalks)

Do you like to dance?  Maybe just around the house?  Its fun isn't it.  Just letting loose.  But what if you had to dance.  All the time!  In this tale, we meet 12 princesses who are under a spell and they are forced to dance until their shoes wear out.  Enter young Galen.  He's a soldier returning home from the war.  He meets a mysterious old woman who gives him an invisibility cloak and some magical powers.  Can he find a way to help the princesses?

Booktalk #2

The kingdom is in an uproar. Every night the princesses go to their chambers and every morning their slippers are worn out. No one knows that Princess Rose and her twelve younger sisters are condemned to dance for the wicked King Under Stone in his underground palace every night to fulfill the bargain their mother made with the evil king… and only death will free them. Rumors of witchcraft spread throughout the kingdom and the girls know the end is near. Yet armed with an invisibility cloak, enchanted knitting needles, and most importantly true, Galen, the palace gardener sets out to free the girls, even if it costs him his life. Will he find a way to save them, or will he be the next victim of King Under Stone's evil plan? Time is running out…
Prepared by: Kathy Carroll for South Carolina Young Adult Book Award Nominees, 2010-2011