Princess Academy (Compact Disc)
Miri lives on a mountain where, for generations, her ancestors have quarried stone and lived a simple life. Then word comes that the king's priests have divined her small village the home of the future princess. In a year's time, the prince himself will come and choose his bride from among the girls of the village. The king's ministers set up an academy on the mountain, and every teenage girl must attend and learn how to become a princess. Miri soon finds herself confronted with a harsh academy mistress, bitter competition among the girls, and her own conflicting desires to be chosen and win the heart of her childhood best friend. But when bandits seek out the academy to kidnap the future princess, Miri must rally the girls together and use a power unique to the mountain dwellers to save herself and her classmates.
Shannon Hale is the author of six award-winning young adult novels, including "The Goose Girl" and the bestselling Newbery Honor book "Princess Academy." "Austenland" (soon to be a major motion picture) was her first book for adults, followed by "The Actor and the Housewife" and "Midnight in Austenland." She and her husband co-wrote the acclaimed graphic novels "Rapunzel's Revenge" and "Calamity Jack." They live with their four children near Salt Lake City, Utah.