Ursula Vernon's children's books

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=Tamar

Lieutenant
May 20, 2012
11,961
2,900
#1
Ursula Vernon writes books for younger children, for the most part. I like them. (No cracks about second childhoods, please, I took care not to leave my first one.)
She was recently a Guest of Honor at Chessiecon 2015, sharing the limelight with Seanan Mcguire. Her middle-grade book, Castle Hangnail, has been optioned by Disney (but they option lots of stuff, so I'm not holding my breath waiting for a movie). She has a long series (just completed) for younger kids about Danny Dragonbreath. Her new series is about Hamster Princess. She also writes adult-level stories. Some of them are published under her pseudonym, T. Kingfisher.
 

=Tamar

Lieutenant
May 20, 2012
11,961
2,900
#2
Ursula Vernon's current series, the Hamster Princess books, are thicker than the Danny Dragonbreath books. Where Danny would have one adventure per book, the Princess has several. The format is still a mixture of text and pictures, but the stories are slightly more advanced.
The hamster princess herself is an adventurous warrior female, avoiding being bored or restricted by any of the princess mystique while still enjoying the perquisites (when it suits her) and the sparkly fun parts of it. Her main problem seems to be the assumption that when she rescues someone she's supposed to marry them. Escaping such unwanted entanglements takes some actual thinking. Getting the joke requires some familiarity with the usual patterns of fairy tales, plus being just slightly tired of them - the age at which rude rhymes about children's TV-show characters are considered the greatest humor ever written. I'd put the audience for this series somewhere between the younger readers (for Danny) and the chapter-book readers (for Castle Hangnail).
 

=Tamar

Lieutenant
May 20, 2012
11,961
2,900
#4
Re: Ursula Vernon\'s children\'s books

I have to admit, I seem to be among those who are the age this series is written for, at least emotionally. Princess Harriet Hamsterbone, warrior princess and champion cliff-diver, has won me over.
 

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