This is DEFINITELY one of my favorite books. Aurora and her younger sister, Luna, live in Castle Armelle with their parents. They are not permitted to leave the castle grounds or touch anything--ANYTHING--sharp. When Luna cuts her hair with a broken piece of glass, she pierces her finger. Her mother and father see her with blood dripping from her finger, and Mama faints. Aurora and Luna wonder why she had such a big reaction to a tiny cut. They find out why when Mama tells them a story. Mama was cursed when she was a baby by a fairy named Manon because Mama's older brother met and fell in love with another girl. Her curse was that she would prick her finger when she turned sixteen and die. However, her brother's girlfriend, Emmeline, amended the curse. Mama would not die, but sleep for a hundred years and wake at true love's kiss. Sadly, Mama's parents died during the hundred years of sleep because they were not in the castle, and Mama's brother, Emmeline, and Manon disappeared. Only the people within the castle grounds slept and woke. There's more to this story! When Aurora was a baby, Mama saw Manon. Manon cursed Aurora by saying that she would prick her finger and sleep for a hundred years, and this time, no one would sleep with her. When she woke, everyone she had known and loved would be dead. That's why Mama and Papa hid all sharp objects from her and Luna. But when Aurora finds her new tutor's quill pen, she pricks her finger on it. Luna and their tutor find a way to keep her awake, at least for a short time. But it won't last forever. Will Emmeline be able to help? Where is she? With the help of their new friend Symon, and people who care, they set out on a voyage across the sea to find her. They must escape beasts, a Siren, and Manon, who will stop at nothing to destroy them. Will they prevail? Or will Aurora sleep for a hundred years?
Sleeping Beauty's Daughters
By Diane Zahler
The classic fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty is transformed into a dazzling new story of two sisters fighting a powerful curse by Diane Zahler, the acclaimed author of The Thirteenth Princess. Briskly paced and full of lush descriptions, readers who enjoy the work of Shannon Hale and Gail Carson Levine will be swept away by this spellbinding novel.
The daughters of Sleeping Beauty, Princesses Aurora and Luna, have grown up in a cliff-top palace by the sea, where they are carefully protected by their parents. No one visits, the girls cannot stray beyond the castle walls, and all sharp objects are forbidden here.
But accidents will happen—particularly when an old curse still has power. Soon, in spite of all precautions, Aurora is struggling not to slip into an enchanted sleep.
Frantic, the princesses accept the help of a young fisherman named Symon and embark on a daring ocean voyage to find their aunt—a fairy who may be able to break the spell. From fearsome beasts to raging storms, many dangers befall them, yet they must not give up . . . for if Aurora sleeps, she will not wake for one hundred years.