The Wide-Awake Princess (Wide-Awake Princess, #1)

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The Wide-Awake Princess (Wide-Awake Princess #1)

by E.D. Baker (Goodreads Author)

4.04 of 5 stars 4.04 · rating details · 3,181 ratings · 508 reviews

In this new stand-alone fairy tale, Princess Annie is the younger sister to Gwen, the princess destined to be Sleeping Beauty. When Gwennie pricks her finger and the whole castle falls asleep, only Annie is awake, and only Annie—blessed (or cursed?) with being impervious to magic—can venture out beyond the rose-covered hedge for help. She must find Gwen's true love to kiss...more

Hardcover, 261 pages

Published May 11th 2010 by Bloomsbury USA Childrens

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May 11, 2010 Bookseller Cate rated it 4 of 5 stars

Sleeping Beauty's little sister? Really? Sweet!

King Halbert and Queen Karolina are terrified that their second daughter Annabelle will be cursed just like her older sister Gwendolyn, so in a fit of panic, they allow Moonbeam the fairy to grant her one magical gift -- the gift of being impervious to magic.

When Gwendolyn's spell is fulfilled, Annie alone is left awake in the sleeping palace. With the help of one of her father's guards, Liam, she sets out to find her sister's true love. But exactl...more

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Feb 07, 2010 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010-mt-bookpile

I'm a big fan of fractured fairy tales, and The Wide-Awake Princess is a fun one. Annabelle, the younger, very much unmagical younger sister of Gwendolyn, she of Sleeping Beauty fame. When the curse is activated, it's up to Annie (and the faithful guard, Liam) to break the curse.

Who knew that the Frog Prince's children were Hansel and Gretel, er, Clara and Tomas? Or that Rapunzel was not interested in being rescued by any of her princes? All that, and more, are found here!

Serious fun for those...more

6 likes · like · see review

Mar 09, 2011 Reading Vacation rated it 5 of 5 stars

REVIEW
A new spin on a classic fairy tale, The Wide Awake Princess is a memorable and sweet story. I loved that Gwen’s little sister, Annie, went to such great lengths to wake her up and set things right. I also liked that the story was told in a fairy tale fashion – you know, “a long time ago in a castle far away” sort of way.
I really liked Annie as a character. Since magic couldn’t touch her, she was more “real” than the other princesses. Annie looked like her real self – an ordinary girl. The...more

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Jun 17, 2013 Mary Catelli rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: children-s-book, fairy-tales

Once upon a time, there were a king and queen whose first daughter, Gwendolyn, had been cursed to death, mitigated only to a sleep of a hundred years, to be broken by the princely kiss of her true love. So when they had another daughter, Annabella, they beg a fairy godmother to protect her. The fairy godmother gives her magical anti-magic powers, so that she does not receive all the traditional gifts of beauty, grace, etc, and furthermore, anyone she touches loses their magical attributes. Such...more

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Mar 11, 2013 Angélica rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: childrens, fantasy, myths-and-fairy-tales, reviewed, romance, young-adult

I was quite disappointed with this book. The author tried to jam so many fairy tales in the story to give them either a new twist or a deconstruction that it all ended up quite rushed and forced. It's like a fairy tale-themed boardgame where every two or so steps there's fairy tale character waiting for Annie and Liam, you know? Or, better yet, they all seemed like filler episodes in animes that don't really figure much to the main arc. I think the story would have been much better if it were lo...more

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Jan 23, 2013 Monica! rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: barking-counts-as-consent, the-sparkles-mean-its-magic, you-go-girl, puberty-is-overrated-anyway, hark-a-questing-beast, read-in-2013, how-all-stories-should-begin, but-wait-theres-more, what-is-this-feeling, now-youve-read-the-book, i-love-you-for-your-cover

So a) can we all pause for a moment and reflect on this adorable cover, which admittedly does necessarily portray the main character as she was described in the book but is so cute anyway, and b) no, for serious, I want a Disney movie immediately, based around this cover.

Do it, Disney. Do it for the children.

And for me.

Cover aside, though! What a super-cute happy shiny delightful bitsy book! It filled me with joy! Joy, and the desire to go on an adventure!!

Our heroine, Annie, is the younger sis...more

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Dec 09, 2012 Gemma rated it 4 of 5 stars

A great read for anyone gr. 3 to 6 ... not excluding older audiences of course :) I really enjoyed this story for its cast of colourful characters, its unique play on traditional fairy tales & prince/princess stereotypes, and its light, engaging writing style.

The heroine of this story, Annie, is, I think, a familiar character to all: the younger sister who's ordinariness fails to live up to her perfect and fairy-blessed sister's and parents' expectations. When older sister Gwennie pricks he...more

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Nov 03, 2012 Jemma Gutierrez rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: magic, childrens

haha! omy gosh, this is really good...i just finish reading it today and i think young girl, even adults can learn a lot of things from this...
i grew up being Annie myself, im not pretty not graceful...im ordinary looking and pretty is not something you'd actually use to describe me...
anyway, Annie is not your ordinary princess, in a land where princess are beautiful and graceful made ONLY with the help of magic, Annie is the only one untouched by magic, therefore, the only ordinary looking prin...more

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Jul 02, 2012 Hannah rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult, fairy-tale-retellings

The Wide-Awake Princess is a sweet, fun-filled retelling of the classic Sleeping Beauty tale. It's really quite short, which has a bonus of skipping any boring set-up and jumping straight into the action. On the other hand, this means the character development is limited, so if you're after that sort of thing, I'd look elsewhere.

Annie is a plucky, resourceful and eminently sensible girl who is easy to like, however. In a way, I enjoy that her personal journey is about more about her saving her f...more The Wide-Awake Princess is a sweet, fun-filled retelling of the classic Sleeping Beauty tale. It's really quite short, which has a bonus of skipping any boring set-up and jumping straight into the action. On the other hand, this means the character development is limited, so if you're after that sort of thing, I'd look elsewhere.

Annie is a plucky, resourceful and eminently sensible girl who is easy to like, however. In a way, I enjoy that her personal journey is about more about her saving her family and breaking Gwendolyn's curse than about Annie herself. She begins the novel as someone who is already well aware of her own "shortcomings" due to being impervious to magic, but she's smart enough to also know how useful it could be and makes full use of it. Never does she wallow in silly angst over a situation of which she has no control, and thank goodness!

It seems funny to use "realistic" in a story that plays on a number of fairy tales aside from Sleeping Beauty - there are mentions of Rapunzel, Snow White and the Princess and the Frog, amongst others - but it's a fitting word to describe Annie's happy ending. She does get one, and it's really the only thing that she had wished for: someone that appreciated her despite her "gift." Her sweet little romance with Liam is as sensible and straightforward as Annie is, but she never magically rids herself of that "gift," nor does she somehow become more beautiful and accomplished. Her family remains rather selfish, and Gwendolyn is still a pest. But Annie's journey is fun, and because she finds it so rewarding, readers are happy for her anyway.

I did have one issue with the book (or at least the editing side of things) - the complete miuse of honorifics on several occasions! You'd think a book about royalty would get this correct, but Annie is addressed as "Your Majesty" at least once when it should be "Your Highness" and similar mistakes pop up with the other princes; certainly enough times for me to sit up and take notice. It's a minor quibble, however, and one that shouldn't seriously detract from one's enjoyment of this book.(less)

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May 26, 2012 Amanda Valentine rated it 3 of 5 stars

In The Wide-Awake Princess, Princess Annabelle (Annie) is the younger sister of Gwendolyn—the most beautiful princess in the world, cursed to prick her finger on a spinning wheel and sleep for a hundred years. When Annie is born, their parents want to avoid another fairy curse, so they ask the wisest fairy to protect her. She makes Annie immune to all magic—in fact, Annie’s presence starts to undo magic spells. Annie can also sense when magic is around. This makes her less than popular in a worl...more

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Apr 29, 2012 Emily Beeson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: deliciously-clean-read, fantasy-sci-fi, my-favs, retellings

I picked this one up on our last trip to the library, and I'm so glad I did. What a fun story! I'm going to add it right away to my list of clean fantasy romances for growing girls.

I don't know how I missed it until now, but the timing is right, because I just saw that a sequel is forthcoming this Fall.

Here's my Book Review:Princess Annabelle, known as Annie, is the younger sister of Gwendolyn (aka Sleeping Beauty). When the beautiful Gwendolyn pricks her finger on a spinning wheel, everyone in...more

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Apr 14, 2012 Jessica Harrison rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed, middle-reader

full review at Deseret News
This is the story of a not-so-sleepy, ordinary-looking princess. Her name is Annie, and her older sister, Gwen, is the Sleeping Beauty.

When Gwen pricks her finger and sends herself and her entire kingdom to sleep for 100 years, it's up to Annie to set things right.

You see, Annie is immune to magic — no extra beauty, charm, etc. And when that particular spell puts everyone to sleep, Annie is left wide-awake.

Left alone in a castle full of sleeping people, Annie decides i...more

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Feb 15, 2012 Kris rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: kids

Excellent- a cross of Shrek, The Ordinary Princess, and Princess Academy. After the heroine's older sister is cursed at birth to prick her finger on a spindle and die, the heroine is blessed at birth to be immune to magic. She is forced to exist as normal, and no one likes to get too close because she erodes their magic as well. I loved the exposure of all the beautiful lords and ladies as magical plastic surgery patients whose teeth become crooked when they sit next to Annie, and the implicatio...more

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Oct 24, 2011 Kiirsi Hellewell rated it 3 of 5 stars

Cute book. Fun to read.

I did have a couple of issues with it, though...

* At first, I thought the main character (Annie) was about 12. Her older sister was 16, so I figured Annie was 12-14. Somewhere in there. But she certainly seems to know a lot of things about the "real world" and she has a lot of feelings and ideas about true love and wanting to be in love and get married. I was surprised because in getting to know her throughout the book, it seemed like she was really more like 16-17.

* The...more

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Apr 27, 2011 Bonnie at A Backwards Story rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fairy-tales

With all this talk lately regarding the merits of fractured fairy tales, sometimes it’s nice to just sit back and enjoy a sugar-spun story. The Wide-Awake Princess by E.D. Baker is ADORABLE. I think it’s my favorite book yet by Baker, who wrote the Tales of the Frog Princess book (the first novel was the inspiration for Disney’s The Princess and the Frog). The novel revolves around Princess Annie, the younger sister of Crown Princess Gwendolyn. As babies, Gwendolyn was cursed, destined to prick...more With all this talk lately regarding the merits of fractured fairy tales, sometimes it’s nice to just sit back and enjoy a sugar-spun story. The Wide-Awake Princess by E.D. Baker is ADORABLE. I think it’s my favorite book yet by Baker, who wrote the Tales of the Frog Princess book (the first novel was the inspiration for Disney’s The Princess and the Frog). The novel revolves around Princess Annie, the younger sister of Crown Princess Gwendolyn. As babies, Gwendolyn was cursed, destined to prick her finger on a spinning wheel upon turning sixteen. Not wanting another cursed princess, the King and Queen ask one fairy to gift Annie when she is born, making it so that no magic (good or bad) can ever harm her. When Gwendolyn pricks her finger and sends her kingdom into one hundred years of sleep, Annie is the only one unaffected. The Wide-Awake Princess is her story, and deservedly so—Annie is one kick-ass heroine!

I hate how fairy tales can fall into tropes where the prince is always the one to save the day and rescue the powerless maiden. Not so here. One thing that hooked me early on was the way Annie saves Liam ( one of the unaffected guards who was away from the palace when the curse set in). He gets all shame-faced about it, but Annie could care less. Without her, he would have died. Liam joins Annie on her journey to gather up princes in an attempt to find her sister’s True Love. Along the way, she encounters a mish-mash of fairy tale encounters such as Hansel and Gretel as cleverly thrown together as something out of Stephen Sondheim’s epic musical Into the Woods or the Shrek movies. There’s even a fairy tale role for Annie, which I didn’t see coming, but was delighted about. The way the novel arrives at its conclusion was completely satisfactory. I especially loved the way romance builds between Annie and Liam despite their opposite roles in society. This book hit my sweet spot in all the right ways. It’s ADORABLE and I loved it to bits. I would have loved to see what happened next and wasn’t quite ready to leave Annie behind; she’s such a strong heroine that she wormed her way irrevocably into my heart.

(less)

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Apr 14, 2011 Sara rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Wide-Awake Princess by E.D. Baker tells the story of Annie, Sleeping Beauty's sister. Annie was gifted at birth with magic not having an effect on her. All Annie's life she's been kept at a distance because she repels magic. When the castle is put to sleep by her sisters curse she is the only one that can save her family. Annie travels through several kingdoms with a bodyguard looking for princes to kiss her sister.

This is a delightful book that kids will adore. Kids will enjoy picking out t...more

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Aug 02, 2010 Sarai rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: children-s-chapter-books, young-adult-fiction

I think this is on the young end of YA fiction. The story had its good parts but also got a little cutesy at times with bringing in all the fairy tale references. There were also a couple of parts where I thought the book contradicted something it had said previously. Overall, a light read.

Product Description

In this new stand-alone fairy tale, Princess Annie is the younger sister to Gwen, the princess destined to be Sleeping Beauty. When Gwennie pricks her finger and the whole castle falls aslee...more

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Jul 29, 2010 Amy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

This book was really cute. Who knew "Sleeping Beauty" (Gwen) had a little sister? To prevent any more undesirable curses, young Annie was blessed (or cursed?) with an immunity to magic. Neither good or bad works on her, she grows up without any of the usual fairy gifts. Not remarkably beautiful (as opposed to her sister, the most beautiful girl in the land), not blessed with gracefulness or a good singing voice. Nothing. Along with this gift comes the ability to neutralize anyone's gift (or spel...more This book was really cute. Who knew "Sleeping Beauty" (Gwen) had a little sister? To prevent any more undesirable curses, young Annie was blessed (or cursed?) with an immunity to magic. Neither good or bad works on her, she grows up without any of the usual fairy gifts. Not remarkably beautiful (as opposed to her sister, the most beautiful girl in the land), not blessed with gracefulness or a good singing voice. Nothing. Along with this gift comes the ability to neutralize anyone's gift (or spell) that came near her. Her sister's famed beauty fades in her sister's presence. Annie is thus lives as far apart from her father, mother and sister as is possible while still being honored as a member of the royal family.
When Gwen pricks her finger and everyone in the castle falls asleep, Annie is the only one left awake! Determined to seek out her sister's true love, Annie starts out on a journey to collect all the princes she can find. Joined by the handsome guard Liam, she will encounter a whole lot of enchanted bears, greedy (if forgetful) witches, and coniving royalty before she is done.
Like I said, the book was very cute. Annie's character is very likeable, a perfect age for the targeted age group (and, as I found this book while hunting up something completely different for Anna in the children's section, I'm assuming the age group is like first grade to pre-teen)
What really struck me though is something I've been picking up a lot in books of this sort. The main character, Annie, is both hero & heroine. I'm not sure if that makes much sense, but very similar lines of thought take place in similar books, like Dragon Slippers or even The Frog Princess (by the same author). While a "hero" always comes along to help the fair young lady, she does everything. It is by her ability the dragon or whatever bad guy might be is defeated, by her unique ability/gift that she saves the prince/soldier/hero numerous times, and she always throws herself head-long into danger, with little warning, making life for the poor said hero rather crazy.
Why bring this up?
Two reasons. The first is that the same said books leaves the poor hero dangling, often revealed as such, with a lack of something to do. The heroine is kicking butt and taking names, constantly saving his life, and making his character seem quite usless.
The second reason is that "The Wide-Awake Princess", while following such a common line, gives the hero a much better chance. While he is, upon occasion, saved by Annie, he is perfectly capable of taking care of himself. In fact, though Annie might save herself from Rapunzel's tower, he is not far behind in searching for her. Annie doesn't go around meddling and getting herself dragged into problems, but neither does Liam. She manages to be the strong, perfectly capable young lady readers have come to expect, Liam is allowed to be a perfectly capable and truly quite likeable hero, who (unlike the Frog Princess - much to my frequest disgust) does not have an obsession with kissing the heroine, but rather uses chivalry to express his affection. In fact, chivalric is a very good word to describe him :)
A good variety of characters and a truly interesting plot, I enjoyed "The Wide Awake Princess" by E.D. Baker (even if I am a bit old for it ;) ) (less)

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Jun 20, 2012 Liisi Carr rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: mom-s-thumb-reviews, public-library, ya, fun

Details: How well do you know your fairy tales? What if Sleeping Beauty Aurora the Princess wasn't the only Princess to get that horrible curse at her birth? Well she's not. Princesses all over the world are having fairys, God mothers, and other such magical creatures bestow gifts at their births, coming of age birthday parties, weddings etc. But what if you only received 1 magic gift, and that gift was "that No magic will touch you", how would you feel? Princess Annie who is the younger sister...more

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Sep 08, 2010 ~Tina~ rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: lib, fairy-tale, young-adults-kids, read-2010

Queen Karolina and King Halbert fear for there second child, Princess Annabelle. With a terrible curse already bestowed for there first daughter Princess Gwendoyn (AKA, Sleeping Beauty) the King and Queen fear that the same fate will harm there second.
Seeking the help of there favorite fairy God mother, Fairy Moonbeam granted her own gift to the new princess; "From this day on no magic shall touch you or bring you to harm. You'll have to survive on your natural charm".
So, Annie had to grow up w...more

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Nov 16, 2012 Sylvia D rated it 2 of 5 stars

Disappointing.

I like fairy tales retold from a supporting character's point of view with a fun, quirky voice. In my opinion, The Wide Awake Princess definitely promises that but almost immediately fails to deliver. The protagonist, Annie, is supposed to be that character. And, empirically, there's nothing wrong with her. She's a good character and promises to be the spunky tomboy I want to read about, but the plot is ALL action. There's almost NO character development throughout the entire book....more Disappointing.

I like fairy tales retold from a supporting character's point of view with a fun, quirky voice. In my opinion, The Wide Awake Princess definitely promises that but almost immediately fails to deliver. The protagonist, Annie, is supposed to be that character. And, empirically, there's nothing wrong with her. She's a good character and promises to be the spunky tomboy I want to read about, but the plot is ALL action. There's almost NO character development throughout the entire book. So, I'm left only to work with this idea of who she is rather than the book actually challenging or confirming those ideas.

On that note... this book is short. And, somehow, in spite of that, SO MUCH happens. And it's like: 'thing A happens, thing B happens, etc...', and I'm left going, 'So what?' I would rather that less happened and more character development. Since no time is spent building a connection to the characters, I found myself not caring at all about the things they did and the places they went. And since I didn't care about the things they were doing, every fairy-tale they recreated (and boy, did they manage to nod at a LOT of fairy-tales) seemed contrived or shoe-horned in.

Another consequence, for example, is Annie's romance with the main male character... I can see why it works. I mean, it has all the right components, and by all means, everything SHOULD add up to a romance with them, but again... I just don't care. And I wanted to since I love the genre, which makes it all the more disappointing in the end.

Moving away from a lack of character development, there's also a lack of world-building. It's like the reader is assumed to already have some sort of standard fantasy-world template, so setting and world-building is minimal. Much like I can't get into what the characters are doing if I don't care about them, I can't get into the plot and the 'quest' when I don't have a clear setting to work with. There was so much potential and so many missed opportunities. Even plot holes, to a point.

This was a smaller thing, but I get distracted when the writing gets repetitive. The author didn't really switch up the syntax that often, and I started noticing how much she overused the '*blahblahblah*, but then' or 'even though/although *blahblahblah*, she still *blahblahblah*' concessive types of clauses. And once you start to notice something in the writing itself, you notice it every single time it happens, and it takes you out of the story (which I wasn't into in the first place).

Aaagh. I wish I could say good things about this book. The only reason I gave it two stars instead of one is because I love the genre so much. If this were anything but a fairy tale retelling, definitely one star. I guess I'm not really the intended audience (maybe a bit too old, idk), but there are YA books geared toward a younger audience that I enjoy, so I don't know. (less)

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Feb 20, 2012 Swankivy rated it 2 of 5 stars

This is sort of an alternate-world fairy tale--it's a Sleeping Beauty retelling with the caveat that the sleeping princess has a magically immune little sister. Being that it's a fairy tale motif that mixes in a bunch of other fairy tales, I guess I shouldn't be annoyed that it's very questy and has one-dimensional characters, but it did bother me that the premise of the story was so heavily inundated with "it happened this way, because . . . it has to happen this way." I didn't like that the yo...more This is sort of an alternate-world fairy tale--it's a Sleeping Beauty retelling with the caveat that the sleeping princess has a magically immune little sister. Being that it's a fairy tale motif that mixes in a bunch of other fairy tales, I guess I shouldn't be annoyed that it's very questy and has one-dimensional characters, but it did bother me that the premise of the story was so heavily inundated with "it happened this way, because . . . it has to happen this way." I didn't like that the younger princess's gift/curse was so crappy--Princess Annie was immune to magic, but that not only meant that magic couldn't harm OR help her; it also somehow meant that magic didn't work in her general vicinity, so people with magical enhancements forced her to stay away from them (including her family, even though their magical gifts would start working again as soon as she wasn't nearby). I didn't like that the fairy who cast this magic did so in such a way and there was no discussion of why it had to be that way, and I didn't like that her family members were such jackasses about it, acting like they thought they were superior to her because of having beauty and grace and all kinds of gifts that were literally given to them magically rather than earned.

I also didn't like that even though everyone knew a curse was supposed to come on the princess's birthday or before, they still allowed so many risks and loopholes for the curse to manifest. If you knew your daughter's curse would manifest if she got pricked by a spinning wheel, not only would you ban all the spinning wheels from the kingdom, but you wouldn't let her open any freaking birthday presents if you didn't know what they were.

Premise ridiculousness aside, Princess Annie's forced ordinariness was kinda refreshing, though it also made her seem like a contrived person too--of COURSE you would gather skills through practice instead of magic and throw yourself into that if you had nothing else and no one respected you. I liked that her immunity to magic made her uniquely qualified to do things like RESCUE PEOPLE (including, dare we say, herself, and A MAN!, more than once!), and I noticed that this book actually did something that fairy tales normally don't do--it acknowledged that people go to the bathroom! Wow!

But I think the thing that annoyed me the most was how contrived a prince's princess-finding contest was. Princess Annie's looking for a prince to kiss her sister Gwendolyn, but she enters the princess contest without telling him that she's doing so on her sister's behalf. Prince Andreas is portrayed as not being as much of an idiot as royalty usually is in these stories, caring more for finding a wife who can keep up with him on a horse, dance for fun, and eat what he likes to eat. So when Annie turns out to be his perfect match, there's an ISSUE because a) she was looking for someone for Gwen, and b) she's got a thing for her companion, Liam, and he for her. Good thing the story solved that problem and didn't bother to keep the interpersonal conflict going . . . Andreas turns into a slobbering fool at the mention of maybe marrying Gwendolyn and all his credibility as a halfway decent person is thrown out the window. It's exactly what the story needed to go forward and let Princess #1 get her kiss and Princess #2 get her guy, but it isn't interesting.

There seemed to be kind of a lot of plot holes too, as well as lots of plot elements that were super predictable. Princess Annie heard plotting scoundrels outside her castle immediately upon going on her prince-finding quest (who talked in a stereotypical thuggish way), and because of overhearing their intentions she knows her time is short. Regardless, her quest takes a really long time, and some of it is avoidable--the urgency to return to the castle doesn't seem to figure into the princess's thoughts very often. At first I was thinking "Okay, she's sending the princes back to her castle to try to kiss her sister, so she can keep questing." But then I remembered that they couldn't get inside without her, because magical roses kept them out and they would fall asleep because of the curse without her touching them. So that bothered me, and the princess's companion turning out to be a prince was obvious from the beginning as soon as she let it slip that she knew so little about his background (doing that is an obvious giveaway that the background is going to be significant), and I knew which fairy tale was going to get shoehorned in every time the scene was set. And Rapunzel's tower was deserted when Princess Annie got imprisoned there . . . why would the thugs put her in Rapunzel's tower, and where was Rapunzel? That was never explained.

There was a bit with Liam's brother receiving a handwritten note from his mother (enclosing a pin he supposedly needed), but there was no reason she needed to write him a note when she could have told him anything she needed to say in person. The reason, of course, why he had a note was so that he could accidentally drop it where Annie could find it and serendipitously match the handwriting and solve the big mystery of the book. And since one of the men who was recruited to kiss Princess Gwendolyn had to be both a prince and her "true love," of course it turned out to be the nicest one (even though Princess Gwen herself didn't seem very nice), and of course someone she's never met can somehow "be" her true love . . . because the story says so.

So much of it read like a series of plot bullet points with the fraying edges inexpertly stitched together like they'd been found during late stages of editing. It was frustrating, but I bet it would be kind of a fun story to read to very little kids (below age 8), because they probably wouldn't see everything coming a mile away. Maybe I was just reading it like too much of a grown-up? But I don't at all believe that books for kids should be dumbed down. The writing style itself was okay--nothing ever wowed me, but it was quite readable and not ornate or distracting--but the storytelling was very ham-fisted. I'm glad at least that the story explored both the advantages and the disadvantages of being unable to be affected by magic in a world that depends so heavily on it, and I'm glad that the author didn't decide to make Princess Annie get transformed into a more beautiful girl by magic at the end somehow. (less)

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Oct 20, 2012 Briana rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Wide-Awake Princess is a cute, creative tale that turns a number of fairy-tales on their heads. To start, Annie is not Sleeping Beauty, but her ordinary sister, “blessed” to never have the benefits of magically-enhanced beauty, or embroidery, or poetry. Of course, the reader soon discovers that Annie is remarkable in her own way; all her talents have been earned through hard work, and she has the biggest heart in the kingdom.

Other fairy tales do make small cameos. For example, Annie wanders...more

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Sep 16, 2012 Cynthia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: great-chapter-books

I love my four boys, but while I was reading this book I found myself longing for a little girl of my own to whom I could read this book aloud. That said, I think I may read this one to my boys anyway because I think they would enjoy it too.
Annie is the younger sister of Gwen, a.k.a. Sleeping Beauty. Gwen is beautiful, talented and enchanting due to the magic spells put upon her by good fairies. However, Annie is completely immune to magic so when Gwen pricks her finger on a spinning wheel and t...more

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Feb 03, 2012 Mirjam rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fairy-tale

Princess Gwen was cursed to die by pricking her finger on a spinning wheel until a good fairy changed the curse from death to a magic sleep for all the people in the castle. Only a kiss by her true love will wake up the castle. So naturally the King and Queen were desperate to prevent their youngest daughter from being cursed as well. So they asked a trusted fairy for advice and Moonbeam gifted little Princess Annabelle with one powerful gift. She cannot be touched or harmed by magic. But there'...more Princess Gwen was cursed to die by pricking her finger on a spinning wheel until a good fairy changed the curse from death to a magic sleep for all the people in the castle. Only a kiss by her true love will wake up the castle. So naturally the King and Queen were desperate to prevent their youngest daughter from being cursed as well. So they asked a trusted fairy for advice and Moonbeam gifted little Princess Annabelle with one powerful gift. She cannot be touched or harmed by magic. But there's just one little problem with this gift, Annie does not fall into an enchanted sleep along with the rest of the castle inhabitants. Not one to twiddle her thumbs, Annie leaves Treecrest and with help from Liam, one of her father's guards, she rounds up all the available princes she comes across hoping one of them is her sister's one true love. Can Annie find the right prince for her sister and maybe one for herself as well?

This is the first book I have read by E.D. Baker, but if all her other books are as enchanting as this one, I really need to remedy that as soon as possible. The Wide-Awake Princess blends humour, magic, well-known fairytales and romance into one delightful and charming tale! I enjoyed the novel way in which she portays Rapunzel or even the witch from Hansel and Gretel. This book makes for fun reading with a great pace, a lovely adventure, a cute little romance and wonderful characters. Baker makes it easy to love Annie. Her gift makes her an outcast in her world and she is forever striving for the same kind of recognition and love from her parents as her sister receives. Wicked she may be, but Voracia is also a favourite of mine. She is quite hilarious. The contest organised by Prince Andreas to find a suitbale princess also had me chuckling out loud. They way he treats those princesses is really funny.

The Wide-Awake Princess is an adorable fairytale that had me smiling from beginning to end. If you like children's fiction and fairytales as well a really funny tale, I definitely recommend this book!
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Sep 25, 2010 Merand rated it 3 of 5 stars

I love fairy tales and I love rewritten fairy tales - updated for the modern reader, if you will. There are a few writers who have really nailed this genre and its always fun to find a new one. Sleeping Beauty is one of my favorite fairy tales and I was pleasantly surprised to see the twist of this story: the princess still falls asleep but has a sister who doesn't. Where will this take us? I don't know. I can't wait to read more!
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So its finished and I was a little disappointed. I really did...more

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Apr 05, 2012 Fade rated it 2 of 5 stars

A mild disappointment. There were some really clever set pieces in the story--the candy cottage was especially well done--but by and large it was just the protagonist walking through a series of fairy tales that worked exactly as they always have. The only characters with more than a single personality trait were love interests, and even they only had two dimensions, tops. There was an awful lot of ugly old women (invariably witches) and an awful lot of snippy unpleasant beautiful women (invaria...more

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Apr 27, 2011 Kim rated it 3 of 5 stars

I very much enjoyed this book. The whole time through I thought..."What a great story to read to your kids at bedtime". Some books just lend themselves to reading out loud. Not exactly "Princess Bride" complexity but full of magic and darling little twists on fairy tales we've come to love. This story is from the point of view of the sister of Sleeping Beauty who was blessed in her infancy that magic had no effect on her. She can also through close proximity or touch....remove magic from others...more

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Apr 10, 2011 Rebecca rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: girls-book-club, fantasy, children

My daughter and I loved this book. It's about Sleeping Beauty's sister who isn't effected by the sleeping curse. It has a fast pace and lots of action. My daughter enjoyed identifying the various fairy tales encountered in the course of the book. A fresh approach to Sleeping Beauty that's creative and fun.

A great book for elementary school kids. A good one for middle school kids who want something less sleazy than most of what's out there, but want something not too childish and still entertain...more

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Nov 13, 2012 Cindy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, juvenile-lit

Recommended Age:
9+

Overall Review:
What if Sleeping Beauty had had a sister—a sister who was immune to magic, and so managed to stay awake after the famous curse had put everyone else to sleep? This quirky and engaging idea is the premise behind E. D. Baker's short and sweet novel, The Wide-Awake Princess. I found the book to be easily readable, and a fun way to pass an afternoon. Princess Annie is a spunky, clever heroine who you can't help rooting for.

However, there were many things about The W...more

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About E.D. Baker

E.D. Baker (Elizabeth Dawson Baker) made her international debut in 2002 with The Frog Princess, which was a Texas Lone Star Reading List Book, A Book Sense Children's Pick, a Florida's Sunshine State Readers List pick & a 2006 Sasquatch Book Award nominee. The Princess and the Frog, is loosely based on this novel.

Elizabeth was born in Buffalo, New York and spent most of the next eighteen yea...more

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Books by E.D. Baker

The Frog Princess (Tales of the Frog Princess, #1)

Once Upon a Curse (Tales of the Frog Princess, #3)

Dragon's Breath (Tales of the Frog Princess, #2)

No Place for Magic (The Tales of the Frog Princess, #4)

The Salamander Spell (Tales of the Frog Princess, #5)

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