Palace of Stone (Princess Academy Series #2)

by Shannon Hale

Overview

A New York Times Bestseller

In this second book in New York Times bestselling, Newbery Honor-winning author Shannon Hale's Princess Academy series, Miri embarks on a brand new life in the city.

Coming down from the mountain to a new city life is a thrill to Miri. She and her princess academy friends have come to Asland to help the future princess Britta prepare for her wedding. There, Miri also has a chance to attend school—at the prestigious Queen's Castle.

But as Miri befriends sophisticated and exciting students, she also learns that they have some frightening plans for a revolution. Torn between loyalty to the princess and her new friends' ideas, between an old love and a new crush, and between her small mountain home and the bustling city, Miri looks to find her own way in this new place.

Don't miss any of these other books from New York Times bestselling author Shannon Hale:

The Princess Academy trilogy
Princess Academy
Princess Academy: Palace of Stone
Princess Academy: The Forgotten Sisters

The Books of Bayern
The Goose Girl
Enna Burning
River Secrets
Forest Born

Book of a Thousand Days

Dangerous

Graphic Novels
with Dean Hale, illustrated by Nathan Hale
Rapunzel's Revenge
Calamity Jack

For Adults
Austenland
Midnight in Austenland
The Actor and the Housewife

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781619632578
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	02/24/2015
Series:	Princess Academy , #2
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	47,741
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.70(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

Shannon Hale is the Newbery Honor–winning and New York Times bestselling author of the series Princess Academy, Books of Bayern, Ever After High, and Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, as well as stand-alones Book of a Thousand Days, Dangerous, and the graphic novels Rapunzel's Revenge and Calamity Jack, among other books. She also wrote three novels for adults, including Austenland, now a major motion picture starring Keri Russell. She and her husband, the author Dean Hale, have four children and live near Salt Lake City, Utah.

www.shannonhale.com
@HaleShannon

Editorial Reviews

Palace of Stone . . . proves once again that with quick wit and brave words, one person really can change the world.” —School Library Journal

“Powerful and deeply engaging. . . . Readers who have been waiting since 2005 will find their patience well rewarded.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Hale's skill as a storyteller will charm her audience . . . nobody else has quite the same knack for seamlessly segueing between the folksy, intimate charm of an extended fairy tale and the larger canvas and more epic scope of high fantasy.” —Horn Book

“Hale is a master of fantasy. . . . A gorgeously-written sequel.” —Stephanie Perkins, author of Anna and the French Kiss

“Shannon Hale's books reignite my love of reading—that joy of having the time of my life with a great story.” —Stephenie Meyer, author of Twilight

“Shannon Hale writes deft, lyrical wonderful fantasy.” —Holly Black

“Hale's skill as a storyteller will charm her audience…nobody else has quite the same knack for seamlessly segueing between the folksy, intimate charm of an extended fairy tale and the larger canvas and more epic scope of high fantasy.” —The Horn Book on Palace of Stone

“Shannon Hale writes deft, lyrical wonderful fantasy” —Holly Black

From the Publisher

Shannon Hale writes deft, lyrical wonderful fantasy.

Holly Black

Shannon Hale's books reignite my love of reading--that joy of having the time of my life with a great story.

author of Twilight Stephenie Meyer

Hale's skill as a storyteller will charm her audience . . . nobody else has quite the same knack for seamlessly segueing between the folksy, intimate charm of an extended fairy tale and the larger canvas and more epic scope of high fantasy.

Horn Book

Readers of Hale's Newbery Honor–winning Princess Academy (2005) will welcome this reunion with Miri and her schoolmates, as they descend Mount Eskel to help Britta prepare for her wedding to Prince Steffan. But while the palace in the capital city of Asland is as luxurious as their imaginations conjured, the working classes are hungry and tired of footing the royal family's bill. Revolution is in the air, and it sweeps Miri, now enrolled at the university, into its wake. Miri is torn in several ways: between two boys, between the educational advantages Asland offers and her home in the mountains, and between empathy for the "shoeless" and loyalty to Britta, who has become the focus of the revolutionaries' wrath. Hale handles these threads ably, although a scene in which the Eskelites stop a villain by using their ability to communicate through stone—a homegrown talent called "quarry-speech"—has a whiff of comic-book superhero that feels out of place. Still, this is a fine follow-up to a novel that already felt complete. Ages 10–up. Agent: Barry Goldblatt, Barry Goldblatt Literary. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Gr 6 Up—In this follow-up to The Princess Academy (Bloomsbury, 2005), Miri and her fellow graduates are headed to Danland's capital city to attend the wedding of their friend Britta and Prince Steffan. Miri is also given a place at the university and wonders if she might stay in the city rather than return to her tiny village of Mt. Eskel.This indecision is complicated by her mixed feelings about Peder, her maybe-fiancé from home, and Timon, the friendly scholar she meets in her classes. When delegates from the other provinces stage an insulting protest to the king, Miri learns that the Eskelites are not the only ones who have been abused by the monarchy, and that the "shoeless" poor are close to rebellion. She is enlisted to befriend the rebels and quickly becomes sympathetic to their side. When it turns out her new friends have an agenda of their own, she realizes that she has put Britta's life in danger. The rebellion plotline acts as a primer on why change and social improvement are so difficult, and how resorting to violence can backfire. Miri may be just a young woman from Mt. Eskel, but in Palace of Stone she proves once again that with quick wits and brave words, one person really can change the world.—Eliza Langhans, Hatfield Public Library, MA

School Library Journal

In the long awaited sequel to THE PRINCESS ACADEMY, Miri travels from Mt. Eskel to the royal palace for the upcoming wedding of Britta and Prince Steffan. Instead of joyous preparations, she finds herself in the middle of a simmering conflict between the nobles and the common folk. The full cast enlivens Hale's story of revolution. Particularly noteworthy is the voice for Miri as she struggles with the mantle of leadership. However, some of the characters do not distinctly pronounce Miri's name, causing confusion. Cynthia Bishop's carefully enunciated narration is a strong point, but incongruous musical ditties opening each chapter detract from the narrative flow. Once the story gets going, it’s enjoyable but, like a quarry on Mt. Eskel, this production is rocky and uneven. M.M.O. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2013 - AudioFile

Miri leaves her mountain of linder stone for another year of study and finds ethics and rhetoric to be powerful tools in the making of a revolution. This sequel to Princess Academy (2005) returns Miri and several of the girls from Mount Eskel to Asland to prepare for the wedding of Miri's best friend Britta to Prince Steffan. Times are dire: The people are destitute or starving, and the king, Steffan's father, seems indifferent and distant. Miri meets Timon, a classmate, and Lady Sisela, who speak strongly of the oppression of "the shoeless." The first half of the tale is a little slow and full of set-up, but the second half, when Miri takes action to prevent bloodshed, is powerful and deeply engaging. She uses not only rhetoric and ethics but the emotions of her people, which are held in the linder stone that comprises the palace, to hold the violence of the revolution in check. The politics echo the French Revolution (Hale notes this in the acknowledgments), but Miri's clear voice keeps the story hers and her people's. There's lovely texture to clothing and architectural descriptions and vivid warmth to Miri's friendships, her longing for home and her thirst to learn more and more. Not one but two boys help her find all the feelings kisses can engender. Miri's story comes to a satisfying end; readers who have been waiting since 2005 will find their patience well rewarded. (Fantasy. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews