This charming story is predictable is precisely the comforting way fairy tales so often are. But before the Minister in Charge of Hiring a Suitable Dragon and the subcommittee for drawing up the draft of a suitably worded proclamation can get the plan underway, Amy learns of it and decides to run away and avoid all the ridiculousness. After all, what prince can resist a quest to slay a dragon and rescue a princess? As long as Amy is kept out of sight, it’s a perfect plan.

But none of them ever stayed more than one day.ĭesperate for a solution, the King and Queen decide that the thing to do is hire a dragon, lock Amy away, and spread the story that the dragon stole her. One after another, as the months rolled by, princes and Grand Dukes and Royal Highnesses and Serene Transparancies of every description, shape and size arrive at the palace of Phanff to pay a friendly visit, but in reality to meet Her Serene and Royal Highness the Princess Amethyst Alexandra August Araminta Adelaide Aurelia Anne of Phantasmorania.

After all, the youngest princess is always the prettiest: Amy’s ordinary looks are a well-kept secret, so there’s no lack of potential partners. This state of affairs is all well and good until Princess Amy’s older sisters are all married and the search for a suitor for Amy begins. Amy preferred to sneak out of the castle and climb trees and swim in the forest of Faraway.

She also took little interest in her sisters’ hobbies of playing the harp, doing embroidery, and tossing a golden ball back and forth. Her ordinariness takes the form of being an ordinary sort of pretty, with mousy hair that wouldn’t straighten and freckles that wouldn’t disappear. She retains the health, wit, charm, and cheerfulness bestowed on her by the other fairies, and those qualities serve her well. You shall be Ordinary!”Īnd so Amy was-only not really. But then, on the day of her christening, one of the fairies who attended gave her a gift that she said would “probably bring you more happiness than all these fal-lals and fripperies put together. Seventh princesses were supposed to be lucky and youngest princesses the most beautiful, and so it seemed for Amy at first. She wondered what the stories would have been like if some of those princesses had been “gawky, snub-nosed, and freckled, with shortish, mouse-colored hair.” And so Princess Amy of The Ordinary Princess was born.Īmy, short for Amethyst, is the seventh daughter of the king and queen of Phantasmorania. Kaye recalls reading the Andrew Lang fairy books, which included fairy tales from all over the world, and noticing that the stories were populated with beautiful princesses.

The ordinary princess