Tagged: royal diaries
Lady of Ch’iao Kuo: Red Bird of the South by Laurence Yep
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
2nd Month, 3rd Day
…There was once a time when the Chinese could just make up stories and write them down.
They didn’t have to be afraid of enemies attacking. They could make gardens instead of forts. They could walk out at night without any weapons and look up at stars.
Master Chen calls it “peace.”
It is hard to think there really is such a thing. I find it easier to believe that a warrior can fly through the stars in a magic chariot. However, the history books and Master Chen all say peace really existed.
Depending on which edition you have, this book is either subtitled Red Bird of the South or Warrior of the South. I have the special edition, so the title on my book is the latter, but the book was published under both names, in case you’re confused. I’m just using the apparently more popular title for my post.
Princess Redbird is a truly amazing woman. She’s a leader among her own people and strives to represent her people well while she’s in Chinese territory going to school. There are times she loses her temper, but she always makes up for it and in the end keeps her promise to do much better. Not only that, she is a stark contrast to her brother Little Tiger in that she’s interested in ruling and actually listens to her people. The two make an odd pair later on in the book, but it sort of sets the dynamic of what their relationship would be like in the future.
I honestly had no idea the Hsien people existed as a separate entity in Southern China in the sixth century. But Laurence Yep’s descriptions of the way the Hsien lived and the completely different climate back then are fascinating and informative. This particular entry in The Royal Diaries is 300 pages long, so we actually have a chance to get a feel for the times and appreciate Princess Redbird’s accomplishments. Her military strategies are absolutely brilliant and she is a strong, but compassionate leader.
Laurence Yep couldn’t have chosen a better candidate for his novel. Not only is he a talented writer that brings the princess to life, but he also brings the world of the Hsien and the turmoil of the times to life. How sad is it that a fifteen-year-old girl does not know what peace is and does not believe that it ever really existed? Princess Redbird is one of the few princesses in this entire series that I truly feel connected to, which is an enormous accomplishment in itself.
Even if you don’t know much about Chinese history, you’ll love this book. And even though it was written for tweens, people of all ages will absolutely love Red Bird of the South.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
*Only available as a used book.
Kaiulani: The People’s Princess by Ellen Emerson White
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
May 6, 1889
At Iolani Palace, Father and I met with Papa Moi and Mama Moi in the throne room. Papa Moi was solemn, as he reminded me that it will be my responsibility to do as well as possible, and in that way, further the hopes of our nation. I was glad that I have never admitted to him how fearful I am about leaving. I think he would find that petty, as I go off not for myself, but for all of the Hawaiians I will someday lead.
“I will not fail, Papa, will I?” I asked Father, once we were on the way back to Ainahau.
“It is not even as possiblility,” he said, his voice full of confidence.
I wish that I could feel that same confidence.
After reading The People’s Princess, Kaiulani has definitely joined the ranks of my favourite women in The Royal Diaries. She’s strong, smart and actually has situational awareness, something many other princesses in the series seem to lack. Not only that, but there are actually reasons for Ellen Emerson White’s decision to make the narrative cover 4 years. Covering 4 years in a little over 200 pages is difficult, but the novel never jumps around and you know what is going on.
Kaiulani is an incredible character who fights in whatever ways she knows how in order to keep her country from being annexed by the United States. Of course with the hindsight of history we know that she fails, but her trip to the U.S. to convince the Americans otherwise is fascinating. The way she writes in her diary is very different than the way she presents herself to the public, which is another surprising bonus in tween fiction. Kaiulani is mature and completely aware of her position, making this an interesting read, to say the least.
I wouldn’t call the plot fast-paced, but it’s certainly not boring either. Once again, I can’t exactly vouch for the historical accuracy of The People’s Princess (especially since I didn’t even know her name before I started the book), but it certainly feels like Ellen Emerson White did more than her fair share of research. According to the Historical Note, she didn’t change much, so I’m assuming everything’s accurate as it can be.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Victoria: May Blossom of Britannia by Anna Kirwan
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
29 May
…I had to kiss His Majesty’s hand. Really, one kisses the air over his hand, and that’s a good thing, for he’s so glistening with lotions and powders to cover the liver spots on his skin, which he hates…
Aunt Soap says he was a beautiful lad when he was young. “Prinny was the handsomest Prince ever. His curls were the colour of honey on toast, like that red-gold Russian sable the Princess de Lieven wears.” Now, unfortunately, his beauty has quite fled. Perhaps he does wear a corset, as I once heard Lady C. remark—though I can’t see that it does much good. (I’m sure she would be shocked to know I overheard. But I do wonder why so many people seem to think a young person’s ears do not work unless they are instructed to by some adult.)
Even for a princess in The Royal Diaries, Victoria is quite young when she’s ‘writing’ this book, at only 10 years old. Maybe it’s because I’m a cynical old reader, but even for ten years old she was, quite simply put, an annoying brat. Part of it was her immaturity and the other part was the annoying quirks Anna Kirwan used to make her ‘unique’.
In this portrayal of the future Queen Victoria, Anna Kirwan has made her quite ignorant of her station, immature and an incredibly annoying writer. You see, sometimes Victoria speaks in the language you would expect of the times and in the same entry you might see language you would use in an email to a friend. I don’t know why Kirwan decided to do this, but she makes Victoria use the arcane form of ‘choose’ (‘chuse’) without using any other arcane language. This, of course, doesn’t make it authentic so much as it makes it annoying. The most annoying personality quirk used was Victoria’s habit of using ‘v.’ as an abbreviation of ‘very’. So we end up with a character who uses words that are ten letters long, but abbreviates a four letter word. Writers take note: this is not quirky; it’s annoying.
When you have a book written in diary form, a good narrator is an absolute must because you can’t escape from their point of view. Therefore, Victoria: May Blossom of Britannia was bad overall. I’m sure with a better narrator I would have been more focused on the historical events than on translating v., but that was not the case. As far as I can tell, this book is mostly accurate, but Anna Kirwan admits to changing a few things around in her Historical Note.
I give this book 1.5/5 stars.
*Only available as a used book.
Sondok: Princess of the Moon and Stars by Sheri Holman
(Cover picture courtesy of Fantastic Fiction.)
10th day of the 1st moon,
17th year of King Chinp’yong
It is the Hour of the Pig when the whole palace is settling down to sleep and only the watchmen and astronomers are awake. I have not had a chance during the festival season to sit at my favourite stargazing spot. It is here where I feel most alive. Here inside the grand mystery of the stars…
How can I help myself, Grandmother? During the day, everything is chaotic in Kumsong. Men rush around the palace, merchants hawk their wares. The city is a jumble of oxen and horses and children and slaves, all bellowing and laughing and tripping over one another to get where they are going. But at night, all is still and peaceful. I can look up into the heavens and find order…
My roots are here, Grandmother. My roots are in the stars.
Say what you want about The Royal Diaries, but I’ve just discovered another awesome female ruler that I never knew existed before. Sondok was the first woman in Eastern Asia to rule in her own right, having ascended the throne in 632 AD. The ridiculous amount of sexism Sondok chronicles in her writings to her dead Grandmother as a girl are a sort of precursor to what she would face when she took the throne.
But of course that doesn’t deter her and although it takes a while, Sondok realizes her true potential—and it isn’t to be an obedient little female either. Her struggle against the societal norms in Korea is fascinating and reveals a lot about not only the religious turmoil in the court at the time, but also the cultural turmoil. The best part is that Sheri Holman presents all of this information without being too obvious about telling the reader. Sondok describes the times and makes some observations, but Holman believes enough in the intelligence of the reader to let us make our own assumptions.
In contrast to some of the other Royal Diary books, there are actually interesting events going on at the time in Korea and Sondok is a part of them, not just an idle observer. That makes the plot both fast and exciting and also makes Princess of the Moon and Stars one of my favourite books in the entire series.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
*Only available as a used book.
Anastasia: The Last Grand Duchess by Carolyn Meyer
(Cover picture courtesy of Beauty and the Armageddon.)
25 April 1914—Livadia
Papa took us on another long walk. Mama and Alexei joined us later for a picnic, although Mama was feeling weak and needed her wheelchair. An odd thing happened. My sisters and I were picking wildflowers in a meadow, and Alexei was lying on a blanket nearby staring up at the clear blue sky, when suddenly he said, “I wonder what’s going to happen to us?”
We asked him what he meant, and he couldn’t explain it—just that he had a strange feeling something was going to happen, and that next year we wouldn’t be here.
“Nonsense,” Mama said, but I wasn’t at all sure that he was speaking nonsense. Alexei has a way of sensing things.
There are very few books in The Royal Diaries series that I hate, but this is one of them. That is surprising because this one was written by Carolyn Meyer, a normally very good writer of young adult/tweens historical fiction.
What was my main reason for hating Anastasia:The Last Grand Duchess? Anastasia. Sure, I can tolerate some whining when a situation is truly bad, but oh my word does this girl ever whine! Life is horrible: her sisters are terrible, she never gets to do anything, her father is always gone, etc. I’m sure the real Grand Duchess Anastasia was spoiled to a certain extent, but the whining of Carolyn Meyer’s Anastasia could not compare to even the most spoiled princess. Yes, this is obviously aimed at a younger audience than myself, but even at that age I would have liked to reach into the book and slap Anastasia.
Part of my problem with The Last Grand Duchess is that Carolyn Meyer tried to cover too long a period in too short a book. She covers the time from 1914 until 1917, when the Romanovs are placed under house arrest in Siberia. That’s a lot of time to cover in less than 200 pages and it makes Anastasia’s diary really jumpy, meaning there are no entries for months at a time and Carolyn Meyer does a lot of telling rather than showing to help readers catch up.
However, my main gripe with the book was Anastasia herself and in diary format, if you hate the writer, you’re going to hate the rest of the book. Everything is told in the writer’s perspective, so if that writer is a whiny, angsty preteen, things are going to go very badly. And they certainly did in this book.
I give this book 1/5 stars.
*Only available as used.