Grade 6-10-Dokey has taken the familiar "Sleeping Beauty" fairy tale and turned it into a fantastical romance guided by adventure and magic with humor and wordplay thrown in for good measure. Overjoyed to be parents, the king and queen forget to invite one of the aunts to the baby's christening. Angered by their thoughtlessness, she curses the child to a certain death-by-pricking at age 16. So begins the tale of Aurore, a beautiful, strong-willed, ill-fated princess. Wary of her destined future, her parents coddle her throughout childhood. When she turns 16 and does not die, the kingdom is beset by strange happenings, and Aurore leaves in order to save it. She sneaks off to La Foret, the forbidden forest, where she meets young Prince Ironheart, nicknamed Charming. Time becomes wobbly at this point, and readers are taken further into a tangle of fantasy and magic. Of course Aurore is the princess that Ironheart has come to rescue. When she finally does prick herself with a needle, the sleep is only moments long-or is it? The characters are realistically drawn, especially Aurore, who, as narrator, is chatty, witty, and easy to like. Though the sequence of events in the forest is somewhat confusing, and the surprise ending wraps up rather quickly, this is an enjoyable read for mature fans of fairy tales.
Angela J. Reynolds, Washington County Cooperative Library Services, Hillsboro, OR
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Customer Reviews

19 Reviews

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
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Average Customer Review

4.4 out of 5 stars (19 customer reviews)

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4.0 out of 5 stars a very worthwhile read, with a nice ending, Jun 8 2004

By A Customer

After reading this book, then reading the reader reviews, I'm compelled to give my own opinion. This was a lovely retelling of the story, Sleeping Beauty. In her narration, the author offers up some important life's lessons in a very novel way (no pun intended), not to be missed. I picked this book up to quickly scan its contents before purchasing it for my twelve year old daughter, then found myself unable to put it down. The beginning wordplay was somewhat challenging: It was an effort to read and reread the same sentences to discern the storyline. However, once the beginning was established the plot developed a comfortable rhythm. About that ending...it was not totally unexpected (don't read on if you wish to remain clueless as to how it ends) and there was nothing objectionable in the least bit given the marital customs of that period in time. The ending wasn't disappointing. Simply put, I would say that it was...Charming!

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3.0 out of 5 stars Great book- sick and wrong ending, Jun 4 2004

By	"silverstar32" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This book was a fantastic book and kept me hooked untill the very end. The imagry was wonderful and the main character had such spirit. This is part where you wonder why I gave it only three stars. The ending of the book was sick and wrong. It is definatly unexspected, but still sick and wrong. I won't give it away and I recomend this book to anyone who can just ignor the ending.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Very, very good, exciting, sweet and spicy tale!, April 13 2004

By	Cait (Yukon) - See all my reviews

I liked this book a lot! It was very well written and kept me interested the whole way through! I didn't even read ahead once (which I tend to do a lot) because whatever was happening was always engrossing. It was really sweet and I loved the end which was very good and surprising, and made you believe in the power of love. The characters were all witty and funny, easy to like. And it kept you guessing till the end. I loved that love proved to be the most powerful force of all, stonger than evil, or even good. And Oswald was great, an interesting character because even though he's a good-guy, you were never sure what his motives were. But I loved him. My only complaint was that it wasn't long enough. The beginning was long, but the main action seemed to happen too quickely.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Is 10 stars an option?
Wow. Yes, that's the only word out of millions that I can draw from my head to describe this short novel. Read more

Published on Feb 26 2004 by J

2.0 out of 5 stars good book, bad ending
This story is a retelling of an old classic. It is new and exciting to read. It's not just the regular sleeping beauty story. I liked it a lot, until......THE ENDING!!!! Read more

Published on Dec 30 2003

4.0 out of 5 stars "And they lived happily ever after."
Such a typical fairytale ending. Yet in the case of Cameron Dokey's "Beauty Sleep" that sentence carries much more than Cinderella could ever imagine. Read more

Published on Oct 6 2003 by KC

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply Charming
Princess Aurore is born, and almost immediately after her birth she is cursed with death, and then with a slumber of 100 long years. Read more

Published on Oct 1 2003 by Erika Sorocco