Pennyroyal Academy

TITLE: Pennyroyal Academy
AUTHOR: M.A. Larson
RELEASE DATE: October 2014
PUBLISHER: G.P. Putnam's Sons
PAGES: 314 pages
SERIES: The Pennyroyal Academy series
GENRE: Fantasy
OVERALL RATING: 2/5
APPROPRIATE AGE: grades 5-8 

SUMMARY: A girl without a name is rescued from a witch in the dark forest by a handsome knight named Remington. He brings her to the Pennyroyal Academy, where she enlists as a Third Year Cadet in the hopes of one day becoming a princess. But she soon realizes that there is more to becoming a princess than ball gowns and tiaras. These princesses are trained to defeat the evil witches of the world. Can a girl with no name, no family, and a big secret really become a princess?

FAVORITE QUOTE: "Pennyroyal Academy: Seeking bold, courageous youths to become tomorrow's princesses and knights. Blood restrictions lifted - Come one, come all!" (Larson, 14)
   

WHAT I LIKED/DIDN'T LIKE: I chose to read this book because every year I plan to read the entire TLA Lone Star book list . This wasn't exactly one of my first picks, but it became available in the library and I figured I would go ahead and knock it out. Every year, it seems that YART (TLA's Young Adult Round Table) chooses a fairy tale retelling to add to the list. And every year it's the exact same story. As I read this story, I felt like I had just read the exact same book. I kept comparing it to The School of Good and Evil by Soman Chainani (2013). There is a good princess, a bad witch, usually a boy that they are fighting over, good beats evil, the end! 

READALIKES: The School of Good and Evil by Soman Chainani, 

SERIES UPDATE: Book 2: The Shadow Cadets of Pennyroyal Academy due out June 14, 2016

BOOK TRAILER: