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Type of bind: Hardcover
EAN num: 9780618959716
ISBN number: 0618959718
Label: Houghton Mifflin
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 344
Printing Date: March 18, 2008
Publishing house: Houghton Mifflin
Age index: Young Adult
Sale Popularity Level: 6365
Studio: Houghton Mifflin
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Benevolence is not your typical princess and Princess Ben is certainly not your typical fairy tale. With her parents lost to unknown assassins, Princess Ben ends up under the thumb of the conniving Queen Sophia, who is intent on marrying her off to the very first available 'specimen of imbecilic manhood.' Starved and miserable, locked in the castle's highest tower, Ben stumbles upon a mysterious enchanted room. So begins her secret education in the magical arts: mastering an obstinate flying broomstick, furtively emptying the castle pantries, setting her hair on fire . . . But Ben's private adventures are soon overwhelmed by a mortal threat facing the castle and indeed the entire country. Can Princess Ben save her kingdom from annihilation and herself from permanent enslavement?
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Rated by buyers 
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Princess Ben was never much of one for palace life. Her parents didn't live at the castle, and her mother kept her largely insulated from tradition and formality. Everything changed one fateful day, though, when Ben's parents and several other royals were murdered.
Ben moves into the palace to learn her proper role in life, instructed by her overbearing and overly critical Aunt Sophia, who became the reigning queen when her husband was murdered.
Sophia attempts to make a proper lady out of Ben, instructing her in small talk and reducing her food portions. She makes Ben take dancing lessons and, at the height of her frustration, locks Ben in a high tower. Here, Ben finally encounters some good luck--being in the tower leads her to discover a secret room, and Ben is given some hope for the very first time since her parents died.
There were some nice points to this story, and I really liked the inclusion of so many elements from classic fairy tales. However, Ben's evolution from a sullen child to a real princess didn't really ring true to me, nor did the interaction between her and the prince. It all seemed much too abrupt, with not enough transition from one state to another.
Rated by buyers 
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PRINCESS BEN
CATHERINE GILBERT MURDOCK
YA Fantasy
Rated by buyers 5 Enchantments
I have to say I absolutely adored this book. It pulled me in right from the very first paragraph. Told as a memoir, promising to `tell the real truth' of Princess Ben, Ms. Murdock weaves a wonderful story about Ben's struggles to adapt to a life without her parents as she's thrust headfirst into the Queen's world and expected to survive. Faced with spending the rest of her days with Queen Sophia, a woman her mother detested, Ben finds herself suddenly taking Princess lessons, on a diet and spending her mornings dancing under the watchful eye of her tutor. All she wants to do is return to the life she knew, but as the Princess subsequent in line to the throne she simply cannot. When a war is threatened by the neighboring country, who both she and Queen Sophia believe are behind her parents and the King's deaths, Ben finds herself about to be betrothed to stave off an attack, the very idea of which has Ben stunned.
Princess Ben has quickly become one of my favorite characters. I loved her feisty spirit and her willingness to sabotage anyone's plans for her that she didn't agree with, a trait that comes in very handy in the latter part of the story. Throughout the book, we watch Ben slowly grow up and see that things may not be exactly the way she perceived them early on. One of my favorite scenes is when Ben finds the secret passageway in her room and begins her journey into magic. When she discovers the reason for all the `ex' rooms in the castle, she quickly begins to spend her nights traveling about, which prompts the staff to believe the place is haunted.
Filled with unexpected twists and turns that take Ben from a Prince's daughter, to orphan and finally to a real Princess, this is one book fantasy fans and fans of fairy tales won't want to miss. Anyone looking for a fun, entertaining YA Fantasy won't go wrong picking up PRINCESS BEN.
Ms. Murdock grew up in small-town Connecticut, on a tiny farm with honeybees, two adventurous goats, and a mess of Christmas trees. You can visit her online at her website www.catherinemurdock.com and read Chapter One of PRINCESS BEN http://www.catherinemurdock.com/books/pbchapterone.html
Lisa
Enchanting Reviews
September 2008
Rated by buyers 
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In Australia, this book is listed as being for 'primary school' age children. In America, it's slightly more realistically aimed at the 'young adult' market. But even that might be stretching it a bit, because the way this book is worded, it's going to be WAY too high-brow and complicated a read for the average kid. Problem is, the author seems to have used the 'thesaurus' feature of her PC far too often when she was writing this, assumedly in an endeavor to make her character sound more posh. (In fact, it reminded me of that episode of 'Friends' where Joey tried to sound cleverer than he really was, and swapped almost every word in his letter to the adoption agency for a much longer, more complicated alternative from a thesaurus, resulting in a document that was painfully hard to read or fully comprehend.) And so, this book has a vocabulary so complicated that you usually wouldn't even see such words in adult fiction, words like these: obfuscated, pince-nez, chrysalis, trebuchet, sagacity, monotonously, obstreporous, pilasters, providentially, superficiality, omniscience, ribaldries, revetments, debauchery, salacious, vernal, fewmets, ebullient...to name but a few. And it's not just the occasional long word that the author slots in, it's entire statements or sentences in every paragraph like, for instance, these: Apparently her headache, or what we may euphemistically term headache, continued to plague her, OR, Well might one wonder at my myopia, OR, As I peered about the roomlet's gloaming, I espied an ascending flight of steps, OR, I touched rough-hewn masonry, and crudely applied mortar, OR, If earlier I only suspected a mysterious propitious force aiding my training, I now knew it as incontrovertible fact, OR, Memorization I considered imperative, however, for the spell was initiated in the prone position, OR, as I magicked myself a miniature fumarole, OR, Diplomatic correspondence I never saw; its contents were certainly not discussed at dinner. Whether this stemmed from the queen's inherent reticence, OR, to manage my chronic exhaustion, I discovered a singularly brilliant tactic: abject passivity.
And so it goes on and on throughout the entire book, page after page. See what I mean now? It's written more like a dry legal document than a book for kids or young adults. Most adults will understand the book, though be annoyed that it isn't written in a more reader-friendly, less complicated and less Yoda-esque fashion. But kids will probably be left wondering what is going on at least part of the time, and quickly lose patience with it. I'm not saying we should dumb down kids books and leave out long words altogether. But we also don't want to alienate kids by giving them books they can't properly understand, since that will probably sour the reading experience for them, and might make them less likely to want to read other books.
But it's not just the long-winded wording that makes me think this book isn't age appropriate as a kids' book -- some of the concepts in the book are pretty adult as well. Like when Ben overhears the Prince saying, "onerous as the marriage bed would prove", clearly deriding the thought of bedding down with her and, well, doing you-know-what. This is said in the middle of a very adult conversation, involving drinking, the singing of bawdy songs about shepherd girls and mountain goats, and much talking about bedding wenches, including this double entendre-ridden statement: "I dream of Rosalind and her soft PILLOWS. She is a delectable lass and would give herself to you in a heartbeat. She asks after you every time we frolic together" and this as well: "Clearly he has not savoured the pleasures of his own shepherdess". Really, like I said, this is not a book for the young kids of primary school age! I want to make that clear to anyone who's thinking of buying this for a kid.
BE WARNED: MY REVIEW MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS...
Actually, the vocab/writing style is not the only reason I wouldn't purchase this. In my opinion, it's INCREDIBLY dull for most of its overlong duration, not to mention dark and dreary. And the character of Ben, who narrates this, is for the most part repellant. I thought I would sympathise with her...she's an awkward kid with emotional issues who faces some tough times. And she's plump, which I thought would be refreshing in a heroine. Wrong! Unfortunately, the book is narrated by Ben in such a cold, clinical way for the most part that it is hard to feel anything but detachment from her, especially as Ben is a total self-centred whinger throughout the very first two thirds of the book...until she suddenly changes and becomes a goodie-goodie competent heroine of a girl, which happens so abruptly that the change is unbelieveable. And Princess Ben's weight is treated as a joke -- she's constantly splitting her dresses at the worst possible time, or accidentally smearing herself with the food that she incessantly eats. Towards ... Read More
Rated by buyers -
This is a delightful imaginative book that will take the reader into a new land.
Rated by buyers -
Princess Benevolence has lived a carefree life in the Kingdom of Montagne. With her uncle as King and her father as Prince, she is surrounded with luxury, though she has always been more interested in playing and eating sweets than wearing stylish gowns and attending fancy balls. Her mother tries to keep her earthbound by insisting they live over the guards' quarters instead of directly in the palace, and sets an example of generosity by treating the sick and wounded people of their kingdom.
Soon following Ben's 15th birthday party, the anniversary of her grandfather's death arrives, and the royal family departs to visit his grave. Unfortunately, Ben has overdone her party festivities and comes down with a cold, so she must stay in bed rather than accompany the family. Within hours, news of the horrid tragedy spreads across the country --- the King and Ben's mom have been murdered! And Ben's father, intent on following the killer for revenge, has disappeared into the surrounding mountains. The kingdom of Montagne falls into mourning.
With her father missing, Princess Ben becomes the subsequent heir. But since she's underage, the ruling of the kingdom falls on the shoulders of Ben's strict aunt, Queen Sophia. The queen takes it upon herself to prepare Ben for her royal responsibilities, enrollling her in a no-nonsense crash course --- including language, etiquette and sewing lessons, all of which Ben despises --- and putting her on a strict diet to try to slim out her rather rounded figure. She is determined to shape Ben into a charming and beautiful princess in order to marry her off to strengthen the Kingdom's ties.
Starving, mourning her family and disgruntled with her aunt's unreasonable demands, Ben finds herself miserable. The one solace she has is the secret basket of food that a sympathetic employee leaves under her bed. But when Ben fails to lose weight, Sophia investigates and discovers the hidden stash. Life then goes from bad to worse, as her aunt forces her to move into a desolate tower cell attached to the queen's own quarters.
But then Ben discovers a hidden room connected to her cell. The dusty, secret nook contains a book of magic that teaches her spells, including conjuring fire and flying on a broom. Ben practices diligently every night, perfecting her skills in hopes they may help her escape out from under her aunt's clutches. However, she has no idea of the dangerous world in which she is about to enter, including war, enslavement --- and falling in love.
PRINCESS BEN is Catherine Gilbert Murdock's third novel, and she has proven once again her charming talent in weaving an entertaining story. She brings imagination, a sense of humor, adventure and colorful characters to the pages of her book, engaging readers until the very end. Murdock has chosen a poised and dignified voice for her main character, perfectly fitting of a royal princess, even though our young, clumsy heroine doesn't quite fit the mold as perfectly, at least in the beginning. Readers of this energetic fairy tale will enjoy accompanying Ben on her journey to maturity and in learning how to best serve her kingdom.
--- Reviewed by Chris Shanley-Dillman, author of FINDING MY LIGHT and THE BLACK POND
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