Rating: 
Summary: A delightful parody!
Review: Vivian Vande Velde manages to mock all traditional fairy tales with their standard beautiful princesses, evil magicians and handsome princes in A Hidden Magic. Jennifer, the princess, is extremely nice, but not at all pretty; Alexander, the prince, is certainly handsome, but the question remains whether or not he has a brain... Norman, the sorcerer, is not at all nebulous and vague, although he certainly does have a brain. These idiosyncratic characters, combined with various intellectually challenged giants, slippery, slithery dragons and a not-so evil witch pervade the story with humor and surprises.
Rating: 
Summary: A different sort of fairtale
Review: Vivian Vande Velde's A Hidden Magic turns the standard fairytale of the beautiful princess and the handsome prince on its ear. First of all the princess, Jennifer, is not beautiful. Secondly, the handsome prince has only his handsomeness to recommend him; he is arrogant, snobbish and rude. Thirdly, the prince does not rescue the princess: when Prince Alexander offends an evil witch who sends him into a deep sleep, it is left to Jennifer to rescue him. She finds assistance from a clever young sorcerer named Norman. With his grudging aid Jennifer is able to defeat the evil witch and restore Alexander to wakefulness. Despite the role reversals and the lack of customary beauty and modesty, the novel proceeds like many fantasy novels do, complete with a dark forest, an ogre, a dragon and a mysterious Old Witch, until Alexander is awakened. Then Vande Velde does something that makes this story special and more than a slightly-strange fairytale: Jennifer defies fairytale convention and shows excellent good sense in refusing to love or marry the handsome Prince Alexander. Instead she has fallen in love with the sometimes awkward but good-hearted young man who stayed by her and helped her on her quest: the ordinary-looking sorcerer, Norman. Good guys do not always finish last! Vande Velde has written a very good story, although I would have liked it to be a little bit longer, and with a little more support for Jennifer's almost all-of-a-sudden fondness for Norman. I cannot say that Jennifer's interest in Norman is unexpected or not foreshadowed, but a more subtle handling of their romance would make this good story an excellent one.
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