Book Blurb: The Ordinary Princess

The Ordinary Princess is a children's novel written and illustrated by M. M. Kaye. It concerns Princess Amethyst Alexandra Augusta Araminta Adelaide Aurelia Anne of Phantasmorania, Amy for short, who has been given the "gift" of ordinariness.

Like the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty, the story begins with the birth of a princess and the arrival of fairies to give her gifts. The fairy godmother Crustacea, however, tells her, "You shall be Ordinary!"

Unlike her six older sisters, Amy grows up brunette, freckled, and plain, preferring playing in the woods to wearing fine clothes.
When she finds out that her parents want to hire a dragon so that a foreign prince can "rescue" her from it and marry her, she climbs down the wisteria vine outside her window, runs away to live in the Forest of Faraway.

                                       Taken and adapted from wikipedia.com



 A bit about the author

 

Mary Margaret (Mollie) Kaye was born in India on August 21, 1908. She lived in a small town near the Himalayas called Simla until the age of ten when she was sent to boarding school in London. She returned to India when she graduated and only returned to England when her father died. It was then she started her writing career.  She met and married Major General Goff Hamilton.  They lived in many different countries throughout their lives, each place helping to shape her writting. 

Along with The Ordinary Princess, M.M. Kaye wrote several books for adults. Her most famous work, The Far Pavilions, took fifteen years to write. M. M. Kaye died January 29, 2004 at the age of 95.