Beauty Is a Beast by Jane B. Mason

-Author: Jane B.Mason and Sarah Hines Stephens

-Scholastic

-Ages 9 – 12.

-Self readers.

-128 pages.

-Light read. Can potentially finish in three hours or less, if you haven’t fallen asleep.

-Modern day interpretation of folk and fairy tale.

-Series of books based on princesses, Briar Rose, Rapunzel, Ella, Snow White, who are classmates in The Princess School and the challenges they face.

– I read book 4 of 7, ‘Beauty is a beast’.

– The story is how Briar Rose rebels and finally comes to peace with who she really is. In the process she also realizes that even if you are gifted, you still need to work hard to excel.

– I rate the book 2/5.

– The language was simple, at a 8 year old level, while the concept was more tween. Since it was neither here nor there, the book fell flat to me.

– To be fair, I was expecting Princess Academy…. or Ella Enchanted. This was neither.

– Princess with a contemporary twist has lots of potential to play with, but the authors have chosen to play safe.

-If you are looking for a strong charismatic princess as a role model for your daughter, this is NOT it.

– Though the message is good, the way it is delivered defeats the purpose. For example, Briar Rose a.k.a Beauty is thoroughly disgusted by her nickname Beauty. She rebels, dresses up like a beast to finally figure out that she likes looking beautiful.

– The princesses attend courses that are cliched finishing school like.

– Will not read/recommend the rest in the series.