Princess Ben
by Catherine Gilbert Murdock (ages 13 & up)
Houghton Mifflin Company
Although she is the presumptive heir to the throne in the tiny kingdom of Montagne, Princess Benevolence is not much of a princess. Sheltered by her mother and father, Ben is spoiled, rough-mannered and childish. He days are filled with little more than gorging herself on her mother’s cooking, getting into scrapes with her friends in the village, and reading from her vast collection of fairy tales. 
Ben’s life is dramatically changed in a single afternoon, however, when her uncle, King Ferdinand and her mother are both killed in an ambush. Ben’s father is missing and presumed dead, so it falls to Ferdinand’s widow, the icy and excruciatingly correct Queen Sophia, to rule the kingdom as regent and prepare Ben for her own future reign.
Scared and alone, Ben resists every attempt to turn her into a proper princess. As the weeks go by, her life becomes increasingly desolate. When all hope seems lost, Ben discovers a secret, magic room in the castle that will change her life, and her country’s future, forever.