local_shipping   Free Standard Shipping on all orders $25+ and use Coupon Code SummerReading for an additional 20% off!

  • The Restless Girls

The Restless Girls

Author
Illustrator
Angela Barrett
Publication Date
March 20, 2019
Genre / Grade Band
Fiction /  4th − 5th
Language
English
The Restless Girls
This book is currently unavailable.
Description
For the twelve daughters of King Alberto, Queen Laurelia's death is a disaster beyond losing a mother. The king decides his daughters must be kept safe at all costs, and for the girls, those costs include their lessons, their possessions, and most importantly, their freedom.

But the sisters, especially the eldest, Princess Frida, will not bend to this fate. She still has one possession her father cannot take: the power of her imagination. And so, with little but wits and ingenuity to rely on, Frida and her sisters begin their fight to be allowed to live on their own terms.

The Restless Girls is a sparkling whirl of a fairy tale--one that doesn't need a prince to save the day, and instead is full of brave, resourceful, clever young women.
Publication date
March 20, 2019
Genre
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781547600724
Publisher
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
BISAC categories
JUV037000 - Juvenile Fiction | Fantasy & Magic
JUV014000 - Juvenile Fiction | Girls & Women
JUV013070 - Juvenile Fiction | Family | Siblings
JUV012040 - Juvenile Fiction | Fairy Tales & Folklore | Adaptations
Library of Congress categories
Imagination
Fairy tales
Sisters
Princesses
Secrecy
Secrets
Kings, queens, rulers, etc
Kings and rulers

ALA/Booklist

Grades 3-6. Twelve sisters escape their oppressive lives in this feminist retelling of the 12 Dancing Princesses. King Alberto, mad with grief after the death of his wife, takes away his 12 daughters’ books, typewriters, telescopes, and, finally—by locking them all in a room where they’ll be “safe”—their freedom. Luckily, Frida, the oldest sister, discovers a secret door that leads to a tree palace rife with jazzy music, delicious food, and animal hosts, where the sisters can dance and be free. But the girls’ haven is threatened when King Alberto promises his kingdom and one of his daughters to whichever man can solve the mystery of where the princesses go every night. Burton’s adaptation is populated with strong, smart sisters whose interests range from mathematics to singing to botany. The injustices the girls suffer while being imprisoned and treated like they aren’t full humans with brains and desires are keenly described. Barrett’s lush, detailed illustrations (final art not seen) depict the brown-skinned sisters in 1920s-style clothing. Occasional narrative asides preserve the fairy tale feel. An empowering retelling.

Copyright 2019 Booklist, LLC Used with permission.

School Library Journal

Gr 4-6--The traditional tale of 12 princesses who secretly dance each night until their shoes are ruined is retold and fleshed out as an illustrated short novel. Each girl has a special talent ranging from artistic and agricultural to mechanical and botanical skills. After their fiercely supportive, sage mother's death, the girls are locked away by their father, the king; "not a bad man, but a lost one." Soon they discover a portal to a world behind a portrait of their mother, and they bravely going deeper into the magical realm headed by a wise lioness. In this version, it is the eldest sister, Frida, who proves that intellect and wisdom are enough to succeed. She leaves but returns to the kingdom in an airplane to assume leadership. This retelling includes more contemporary elements, while still offering a classic fairy-tale sensibility. The princesses are given names and particular skills though the only truly distinctive character is Frida. The richly described settings, however, make this a fine read aloud. VERDICT A pleasant addition where contemporary fairy-tale retellings are in demand, especially those with a feminist viewpoint.--Maria B. Salvadore, formerly at District of Columbia Public Library

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Publishers Weekly

In Burton's debut, a retelling of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses," the sisters carry on after the death of their mother, "a woman of many words and driver of a racing car." Blaming his wife's death on her curiosity and sense of adventure, King Alberto secures his daughters in a windowless room with only a portrait of their mother, "as if to remind the girls what might happen if they ever tried to go faster than was appropriate." But a door behind it leads to a joyous celebration where the siblings dance until dawn. Discovering that his daughters' slippers are ruined each night, as if from dancing, the King demands their secret be revealed. Burton offers a richly imagined feminist fairy tale, laden with allusions to contemporary concerns about autonomy, gender roles, and power dynamics, that is extended in Barrett's lush scenes of the clever sisters and their revels. Ages 8-12. (Mar.)

Copyright 2019 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.
Jessie Burton

Jessie Burton studied at Oxford University and then went on to the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She worked as an actress and a personal assistant before her first novel, The Miniaturist, was published. The Miniaturist was translated into thirty-eight languages and has sold over a million copies around the world. The television adaptation was adapted for television to be broadcasted on MASTERPIECE on PBS. Her second novel, The Muse, was published in 2016 and is also a number one bestseller. The Restless Girls is Jessie's first book for children.
www.jessieburton.co.uk
@jesskatbee (Twitter and Instagram)

Angela Barrett studied at Maidstone College of Art and the Royal College of Art. She has taught Illustration at Cambridge College of Technology, and Drawing at Chelsea College. She won the Smarties Book Prize for Can It Be True? and has been shortlisted three times for the Kurt Maschler Award and once for the Kate Greenaway Medal. She also illustrated multi-starred-review titles like The Night Fairy by Laura Amy Schlitz and The Most Wonderful Thing in the World, by Vivian French. She lives in London.

New York Times, 05/19/19
-
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, 02/01/19
-