With her adventurous sister, Meryl, suffering from the Grey death, meek and timid Princess Addie sets out to find a cure. - (Baker & Taylor)

With her adventurous sister Meryl suffering from the grey death, meek and timid Princess Addie sets out to find a cure. - (Baker & Taylor)

When her sister goes missing, shy Addie knows that she must muster all of her strength to take on a dangerous journey in order to find her, save her life, and the future of their kingdom of Bamarre. 50,000 first printing. - (Baker & Taylor)

A kingdom beset by monsters . . .
A disease that weakens and destroys . . .
An epic poem and a hero of long ago . . .
A story of danger and desperation.

The two princesses of Bamarre couldn't be more different. Princess Addie is fearful and shy. Her deepest wish is for safety. Princess Meryl is bold and brave. Her deepest wish is to save the kingdom of Bamarre. They are sisters, and they mean the world to each other.

Then disaster strikes, and Addie—terrified and unprepared—sets out on a perilous quest. In her path are monsters of Bamarre: ogres, specters, gryphons, and dragons. Addie must battle them, but time is running out, and the sisters' lives—and Barmarre's fate—hang in the balance.

Gail Carson Levine left her mark on fantasy with her well-loved 1998 Newbery Honor Book Ella Enchanted. Now she has created another shimmering and tapestried landscape of fantasy and fairies. Bamarre and the journeys of its two princesses will burn themselves into the minds of readers, and all will relish this moving saga about two sisters groping their way toward heroism.

A kingdom beset by monsters . . .
A disease that weakens and destroys . . .
An epic poem and a hero of long ago . . .
A story of danger and desperation.

The Two Princesses of Bamarre couldn't be more different. Princess Addie is fearful and shy. Her deepest wish is for safety. Princess Meryl is bold and brave. Her deepest wish is to save the kingdom of Bamarre. They are sisters, and they mean the world to each other.

Then disaster strikes, and Addie -- terrified and unprepared -- sets out on a perilous quest. In her path are monsters of Bamarre: ogres, specters, gryphons, and dragons. Addie must battle them, but time is running out, and the sister's lives -- and Barmarre's fate -- hang in the balance.

Gail Carson Levine left her mark on fantasy with her well-loved 1998 Newbery Honor book Ella Enchanted. Now she has created another shimmering and tapestried landscape of fantasy and fairies. Bamarre and the journeys of its two princesses will burn themselves into the minds of readers, and all will relish this moving saga about two sisters groping their way toward heroism.

Booklist Reviews

Gr. 4-7. Timid Princess Addie becomes so distressed when her protective older sister Meryl contracts the Gray Death, an always-fatal wasting sickness, that she vows to find the cure. Aided by magical gifts from those closest to her, including a tall, handsome young sorcerer, Addie finds the courage to carry out her quest. When captured by Vollys, a she-dragon who knows the cure, Addie uses her skills, wits, and patience to discover the secret and save her sister's life. Readers will find this an exciting adventure story with a sympathetic heroine. Both princesses are well-defined characters, and the portrayal of the dragon is quite original; the scenes in her lair are the most absorbing parts of the book. However, the love interest seems more conventional and less convincing. Still, Levine's many fans will enjoy this fantasy of a princess who triumphs when she discovers her inner strength. ((Reviewed April 15, 2001)) Copyright 2001 Booklist Reviews

Horn Book Guide Reviews

Courageous Princess Meryl contracts the disease that plagues Bamarre, and it is known that courage demonstrated by a former coward could extinguish the epidemic. Her timid sister Addie arms herself with her sister's sword and sets out to find the cure. Levine makes entertaining use of magical paraphernalia. Emphasis is on the action, and the outcome is a nice mix of the hoped-for and the unexpected. Copyright 2001 Horn Book Guide Reviews

Horn Book Magazine Reviews

Courageous Princess Meryl glories in declaiming her country's heroic epic poem and plans to spend her life battling gryphons and dragons. Adeline, her timid sister, is gifted in such household arts as needlework. As luck will have it, it is Meryl who contracts the disease that plagues Bamarre and killed their mother long ago. Swiftly, the "Gray Death" drains Meryl of all strength; the cure is known only to dragons and the inaccessible fairies, though it is also known that courage demonstrated by a former coward could extinguish the epidemic. While the timorous king consults advisers and recites platitudes, Addie arms herself with her sister's sword and equipment such as seven-league boots and sets out to find the cure. At this point, midway through the book, both action and humor pick up. Among other things, a magic tablecloth proves conveniently deadly when greedy monsters gorge themselves on its bounty; and Vollys, the dragon who holds Addie captive while Meryl's time runs out, is a clever conversationalist as well as a wily and potentially lethal antagonist. Once Addie breaks free, her race for the cure is satisfyingly eventful. The outcome is a nice mix of the hoped-for and the unexpected. Levine makes entertaining use of a lot of magical paraphernalia (though the telescope through which Addie checks up on her sister seems more a device for the author's purposes than for her narrator's). Emphasis is on the action; still, there are occasional insights, as when Vollys, praising Addie as a worthy opponent, says, "[Meryl] could lead a charge, but you could last a siege." Having finally recognized her own courage, Addie realizes that Meryl "wanted to battle monsters for the adventure of it. I wanted to defeat them for the peace that would follow." Ironically, the greatest appeal of Addie's tale will not be to potential peacemakers like herself but to those who, like her sister, enjoy the idea of battling monsters. Copyright 2001 Horn Book Magazine

Kirkus Reviews

PLB: 0-06-029316-0A decidedly unspunky heroine quails her way past terrors real and imaginary in a quest to save her sister's life. Addie, the younger of the two eponymous princesses, watches as her sister Meryl practices for a life of swordplay and derring-do; she herself would much rather sit quietly and do her needlework. But when Meryl falls ill with the incurable Gray Death, Addie steels herself to find a cure, venturing forth to encounter specters, dragons, ogres, and—almost the worst of all—spiders. She is aided by an assortment of magical items and periodic visits from Rhys, her father's sorcerer. Punctuated by excerpts from Drualt, Bamarre's epic poem, the text clearly aims at Tolkienesque high fantasy, complete with a tantalizingly unfulfilled prophecy regarding the cure for the Gray Death. But Levine's (The Wish, 2000, etc.) strength lies in character development and world-making, not in epic plot construction. Addie is a refreshingly timid quester whose unabashed love for embroidery sets her apart from the hordes of plucky heroines who have gone before. The attributes of the various non-human creatures that populate her world are well-defined—especially the sorcerers, magical beings who live 500 years and only very rarely marry humans—and herprolonged "visit" with a delightfully evil dragon is quite wonderful. These elements are not enough to elevate a plot that moves unevenly from adventure to adventure, involving multiple convenient rescues, a predictable romance, and an ultimately unsatisfying deus ex machina at the end. Does this matter? Levine's popularity and a publicity juggernaut virtually ensure this book's success, despite its flaws. (Fiction. 9-14) Copyright 2001 Kirkus Reviews

Publishers Weekly Reviews

A pair of princesses becomes determined to find a cure for a mysterious illness that killed their mother. "The author enters a world of high fantasy with this latest princess tale, peopled with sorcerers, elves and fairies, said PW. Ages 12-up. (Mar.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly Reviews

Levine (Ella Enchanted) enters a world of high fantasy with this latest princess tale, peopled with sorcerers, elves and fairies, but plot twists win out over character development. When teenage narrator Addie was two years old, and her sister, Meryl, just three, the siblings lost their mother to the Gray Death, a mysterious illness that continues to plague the kingdom of Bamarre, randomly selecting its victims. Meanwhile, under their monarch father's weak rule, "ogres, gryphons, specters and dragons... were slaughtering hundreds of Bamarrians every year." When the Gray Death strikes Meryl, Addie becomes determined to find the cure. Rhys, a sorcerer who fancies Addie, outfits her with a cloak ("It's not a cloak of invisibility," he tells her, "but if you're in shadow... you won't be noticed") and a tablecloth that produces food on demand; Bella, the girls' tutor, bequeaths to her gifts from their mother, seven-league boots ("the boots go seven leagues when you take a step") and a spyglass that can view a distance of seven leagues and also penetrate stone and wood. Despite Addie's myriad adventures (an encounter with a specter, an ogre and a dragon) and the courage she gains throughout, her character remains an enigma. Other subplots, such as Rhys and Addie's courtship, are not fully developed. Even after the heroine completes her mission (Levine plants clues to its outcome with a Beowulf-like poem interspersed throughout the novel), readers may feel let down. Ages 10-up. (May) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal Reviews

Gr 4-7-This story takes place in a magical time and mystical place and is teaming with dragons, specters, gryphons, elves, and fairies. Princesses Addie and Meryl live with their father, the king, in the castle of Bamarre, where magic and sorcery are a part of everyday life. While Meryl is fearless and confident, Addie is quite comfortable letting others take care of her. When Meryl falls victim to a mysterious illness called the Gray Death, which has already taken countless citizens including the girls' mother, Addie is determined to find the cure and save her. The prophecy is that "the Gray Death will be cured when cowards find courage and rain falls over all Bamarre." Aided by magical gifts from her governess, the elf nurse, and the king's sorcerer, Addie begins her quest. In a Chaucer-like tale, the story of Drualt, a hero of epic proportions, is excerpted in verse throughout the story. He serves as a role model for Addie, who believes she is weak, but her adventures teach her that one must look within to find strength. While this lesson is presented in a somewhat didactic manner, it is one that adolescents can never hear too often. An unexpected twist neatly ties up most of the loose ends. The characters aren't as fully drawn and the writing is not as consistent as we have come to expect from Levine, resulting in a slow starter that speeds up slightly at the end.-Kit Vaughan, Midlothian Middle School, VA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.