The Restless Girls
Jessie Burton
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'A magical modern retelling of an old fairytale ... Exquisite' - Jacqueline Wilson
'These twelve fierce heroines will be a pleasure to return to again and again' - Madeline Miller
'A complete revelation' - Thandie Newton
'Wild, wise, generous, ferocious' - Katherine Rundell
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A dazzling, feminist fairytale from the bestselling author of The Miniaturist and The House of Fortune.
For her twelve daughters, Queen Laurelia’s death in a motor car accident is a disaster beyond losing a mother. Their father, King Alberto, cannot bear the idea of the princesses ever being in danger and decides his daughters must be kept safe at all costs. Those costs include their lessons, their possessions and, most importantly, their freedom.
But the eldest, Princess Frida, will not bend to his will without a fight and she still has one possession her father can’t take: the power of her imagination. And so, with little but wits and ingenuity to rely on, Frida and her sisters begin their fight to be allowed to live.
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An essential gift, this inspirational story about family, sisterhood, imagination and bravery is a modern classic to be handed down from mother to daughter for generations.
Product Details
About Jessie Burton
Reviews for The Restless Girls
Jacqueline Wilson
It’s critical what we read our kids ... Jessie Burton has very cleverly has taken a fairytale that was already standing and loved, but has reframed it. It’s asking you to think of yourself and value yourself in terms other than the way you look, and just that – that one tiny aspect of the book – alone, was, to me, just a complete revelation
Thandie Newton
The Restless Girls is wild, wise, generous, ferocious kind of story. It’s a tale to read to your children (of both genders) over and over, and for them to read to theirs. It’s a book that glows
Katherine Rundell, author of The Explorer
A beautifully realised, whirling adventure full of the dark glitter of growing up, The Restless Girls is a fierce fairytale for the rebel girl – and boy – generation
Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Girl of Ink & Stars
A story of love, loss, grief, and a desperate yearning for freedom, told with breathtaking compassion and wisdom
Louise O’Neill, author of The Surface Breaks
[Burton] fleshes out this traditional fairytale with personality ... Angela Barrett’s illustrations, meanwhile, add an exotic visual richness to Burton’s painterly descriptions of the princesses’ enchanted underworld
Irish Times
A riveting feminist retelling, filled with excitement, imagination, magic, and just the right touch of darkness. These twelve fierce heroines will be a pleasure to return to again and again
Madeline Miller
This re-telling was refreshing and empowering and utterly impossible to put down … An exciting and magical tale of joy, love and the courage of twelve girls to be wholly themselves
Dr. Alaa Murabit
A feminist fairytale about finding one's inner lioness and about picking a battle very much worth fighting …This brilliant reimagining of Grimms’ tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses completely subverts the fairytale genre. Gone are insipid, demure ‘weaker sex’ princessy-princesses and enter feisty and passionate girls who trail-blaze their way into a better life ... This would be perfect for children in upper key stage 2 and would work well alongside our sequences for The Sleeper and The Spindle, The Lost Happy Endings and The Princess’ Blankets
The Literary Curriculum
I have spent years reading princess books to my daughter but changing the words as I go along so they make the female characters stronger and representative and basically not victims. This book did it for me so I can just relax and read the book without worrying about what negative images I am putting into my daughter's brain whilst she can enjoy a book about princesses. This was refreshing and wonderful and a joy to read!
The Green Parent