The Birthday Ball
By Lois Lowry
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Hardcover, Pages 192
From Goodreads:
Princess Patricia Priscilla is bored with her royal life and the excitement surrounding her sixteenth birthday ball. Doomed to endure courtship by three grotesquely unappealing noblemen, she escapes her fate—for a week. Disguised as a peasant, she attends the village school as the smart new girl, “Pat,” and attracts friends and the attention of the handsome school master. Disgusting suitors, loveable peasants, and the clueless King and Queen collide at the ball, where Princess Patricia Pricilla calls the shots. What began as a cure for boredom, becomes a chance for Princess Patricia Priscilla to break the rules and marry the man she loves.
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The Birthday Ball is a really cute book aimed at a younger audience. It’s about a bored princess who is about to turn sixteen. On her Sixteenth Birthday she will be having a ball and will have to pick a suitor. A couple of days before her big ball she decides to disguise herself as a peasant and makes her way to the village school.
The Birthday Ball is very humorous, yet still turns out it’s lessons. It was somewhat predictable but I loved how she ended everything with a happily ever after. The really great thing that makes this book a gem is it’s hilarity. Princess Patricia Priscilla has to decide between three suitors (or is it four). The choices are Duke Desmond of Dyspepsia, who banned all mirrors in his domain, because he cannot stand looking at himself, yes he is that horrendous looking, he even manages to forget how ugly he is. Prince Percival of Pustula is the second choice, he needs to be surrounded by mirrors at all times, because he believes he is so wonderful, and beautiful, yet he has his own dandruff brusher (someone who brushes his dandruff off his shoulders every so often). Lastly, you have Lords Colin and Cuthbert the Conjoint, they are conjoint twins who like crude jokes, and fight often. Throughout the book you also have these really nice illustrations. The illustrations really added a great visual to the story. I loved seeing the Princess grow, and learn from her experience as a peasant.
The Birthday Ball is a great book. Though the target audience is for the young, adults can enjoy this as well…I did.
Rating: 4
Copy received for review by publisher
What a lovely review. Lois Lowry is a staple in children's literature and I always look forward to what she will write next. Thanks for sharing the info and you wonderful review!
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