The Princess Imposter

by Vivian Vande Velde

A relentlessly delightful princess and her choleric fairy imposter switch places for three turbulent days in this magical yarn from Edgar Award winning author Vivian Vande Velde. Princess Gabriella is accustomed to a certain kind of castle life. So when she wakes up one morning in a crowded hut, surrounded by squabbling fairy siblings, it takes all her princess training to maintain her poise and good manners.Meanwhile, across the kingdom, Fairy Phleg revels in Gabriella's luxurious lifestyle. As long as she can fool the castle into believing she's the real princess-with a little help from her magical disguise-then she's set to enjoy three glorious days of sweets and comfort. The mischievous fairies have placed a bet, and Gabriella is caught in the middle of it. Can she survive her time in the chaotic fairy household without failing the ultimate princess test and losing her temper? Phleg turns the castle upside down as she poses as Gabriella, but when an important guest arrives, will her antics unwittingly send the kingdom into war? An upbeat and hilarious fantasy from the masterful storyteller, Vivian Vande Velde.

Genres: Fantasy, Middle Grade, Fiction, Humor, Childrens, Adventure, Romance

224 pages, Hardcover

First published October 10, 2017

About the author

Vivian Vande Velde (born 1951, currently residing in Rochester, New York) is an American author who writes books primarily aimed at young adults.

Her novels and short story collections usually have some element of horror or fantasy, but are primarily humorous. Her book Never Trust a Dead Man (1999) received the 2000 Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Novel. She says that she really likes to write for children. She likes to do school talks to children. She does many book conventions and also gives writing classes.

Reviews

[Melanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Princess Imposter was okay. I (mostly) listened to this in audio, which I thought was well done. It was a little too childish for me and I just found it silly at times. It did get better towards the end of the book and the ending was interesting. The marriage between a human and a fairy. All in all, an okay read. I think young readers would enjoy this more.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was a cute tale. I did think it odd that no one called "Gabriella" (Phleg) out about behaving so differently than her usual self. The humor is definitely geared to a 10-12 year old, so I could see kids really enjoying this story.

[Andreea Zelenyak · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very cute and enjoable read!!

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

As usual, the fairies have a bet, and they are up to their usual trickery with humans. Gabriella, a princess, is switched with Phleg, a fairy, for a handful of days. Although changelings are normal for the fairy world, the changes usually occur with babies and not older humans, but Phleg never plays by the rules. Because the story shifts back and forth from Gabriella's experiences in the fairy world and Phleg's in the human world, readers are treated to several humorous scenes. After all, Gabriella knows nothing about taking care of children or animals or even cooking or doing dishes, tasks that fall on her shoulders, and she must also deal with the belittling comments from Parf, Phleg's brother. Meanwhile, things aren't easy for Phleg either since she is completely unfamiliar with eating habits or foods enjoyed by humans, and she finds herself attracted to Gabriella's betrothed prince, Fred, who returns her feelings. In the end, both girls learn quite a lot about themselves as well as a great deal about the strange new worlds in which they find themselves. I got a kick out of Gabriella's clever efforts to help Parf's father who is accused of theft and must appear before the fairy court. Really, no one does this sort of thing better than Vivian Vande Velde, deftly blending humor with important life lessons about life from a different perspective. Trusting that they can figure things out, she allows her readers to draw their own conclusions in certain situations too. Intermediate and middle grade readers will thoroughly enjoy this story.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fairies are up to mischief and shenanigans...again! This time, Parf issued a dare to his sister, Phleg: that she couldn't switch places with the human Princess Gabriella and pull off the stunt without the humans figuring it out. Of course, Princess Gabriella had no idea this was coming and suddenly, Poof! there she was in Mumsy's realm, expected to cook, clean, care for the youngest siblings, and generally navigate her way through the magical fairy world.

On the other hand, Phleg dropped into Princess Gabriella's world just as her betrothed, Prince Fredrick was visiting with his parents. Oh my! How is she to act? Will she be able to convince Fredrick that Gabriella is really the one?

Full of humor and unexpected results, The Princess Imposter, is a fairy tale with a twist. Alliances are made and broken (which the reader will probably figure out way ahead of time). Nonetheless, it is a feel-good, heart-warming tale of two realms coming together for peace and goodness!

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Princess imposter is about a fairy, Fleg, who magically takes the place of the Princess Gabrielle. The majority of the story flips between the two girls and their struggles in their switched situations. Fleg, doing her best to mask as the princess doesn't have the slightest clue on how a princess should act. While Princess Gabrielle has never had to deal with these conditions or treatment before. Hilarity ensues while the girls do their best to either fool the kingdom or not anger the fairies. An activity that I would use for this book in the classroom would be similar to what we did in 307. A reader's theater of this book would be a fun way for students to engage in the story and get really creative! Students could read the book over the course of two weeks, have on week to produce their play, and then present in front of the class. I think students would get really into this activity especially older grades (3-6). Overall, this wasn't my favorite book but I can see the appeal for younger readers.

[Hisgirl85 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Vivian Vande Velde and will read pretty much anything of hers I can get my hands on asap. I got this from the library, an ebook, and enjoyed it. I read it pretty much before going to bed and finishing the rest in the morning before getting up. It was cute. I grew to like Phleg, but found her harder to like with first appearances, while I loved, LOVED, Gabriella. The ending tied everything together fairly nicely, and I was thoughtful about it afterward, seeing how the book was a lot about appearances, conversations/words, and seeing things for what they are rather than how you see them at first (and thereby seeing a bigger picture of a person or situation through questioning/knowledge/experience).
Cute at 3.5 stars.
Not my favorite VVV, but growing on me as each moment passes.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just as cute and fun as the cover design (be sure to flip it over!) and art imply. But also a wonderful "Another Point of View" story. The girls really do learn more other perspectives and thus about intercultural relationships. In fact, the adults do, too. The world would be so much a better place if more of us developed a real empathy. (Or any empathy at all, it seems to me as I read news headlines.)

Anyway, the book has a drop of very clean/innocent romance, humor, a bit of drama, heart, good writing, and a perfectly enchanting ending. I will continue to read everything that I can find by Vande Velde.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this mostly because it was one of only 3 Vivian Vande Velde audiobooks currently available on Scribd, but I have enjoyed everything of hers that I've read and so was pretty confident that this would also be good.

VVV writes a great Fish out of Water story, and this is a 2-in-1. She does a great job of clearly showing what other characters are thinking, even while writing from third person limited POV. The situations that the characters got into, and how they got out of them in ways that were unique to their characters, were very well done.

[Debbie Tanner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This super cute chapter book is about Princess Gabriella who awakes one morning to find that a fairy has switched places with her and she is now living with the fairies. Phleg, the fairy, finds that being a princess is a lot trickier than it looks and Gabriella finds that fairies are a lot different than she's heard about in all her stories. It's a fun little adventure.

[Kara · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story can't decide who the audience is - the story and style are aimed at a very young elementary-school audience, but the length suggests an older middle-school reader. So, the reader who would like this story would struggle with the length, and the reader who could read this would be turned off by how baby-ish it is.

[Miss Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Well told and engaging story of a human princess who gets swapped with a fairy girl. They each learn something in their new situations. Overall, I thought Gabby's adventure was more interesting with the fairy family and their dad's trial, but Phleg's masquerade as the princess was not without its share of good moments.

[Sabrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 5 year old chose this book as our read aloud, and it was definitely a bit beyond her, but we both enjoyed it. The author had a pleasant writing style with distinctive narrator voices in her dual narration. It was fun to watch the character development, and we loved the sense of humor found throughout. A cute read.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise is what caught my attention to this book. While the story does get better as it goes along there is, regrettably, far too much "humor" related to bodily functions that, in my opinion, continues to plague far too much of children's literature. Young readers deserve better than bathroom humor all the time.

[faithsreads · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a bit childish but even though I am not a big fantasy reader it satisfies my craving for a bit of magic. It is an easy read with only a couple of characters which is good for me (a.k.a someone with bad memory who can’t keep up with many characters).

[Sabrina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is not a very fun book, It was a bit boring and had a bit hard grammar words for kids. If your looking for any fun princess book, i dont really recommend this. In some parts it was fun but mostly it was boring.

[Nichole · Rating 2 out of 5]

I adore Vivian Vande Velde but this was not up to par with her normal wittiness and humor.
It was really cute but not really original or that captivating.

[Mehreenkhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

can you read this book for me

[Eliza · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun little story about a princess being changling as a teen rather than as an infant. The fairy learns that life as a princess isn't what she thought I'd be like.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and will look for others by this author. It's beginning was a little slow, so not 5 stars. I would give it 4.25 stars and encourage others to try it.

[Melody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun Read!!

[Naomi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I always enjoy Vivian Vande Velde's prose, and i did this time as well. The plot, however, felt flat.

[Akshaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was a pretty good short story and the whole story stays on topic.... but i got a bit bored but then interested at the same time, it was a fun read :D

[Desiree Nordstrom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute, I read it to my 10 yr old, she enjoyed it.

[J. S. Seebauer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A satisfying story of figuring out who you really are, and who you really want to be.

[Bailee Hegwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very different from any fairy tale book I have ever read. I actually laughed out loud!

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cute story about finding where you belong.

[Juliet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Super cute, had a lovely time.

[Moonie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review to come.

[Andrew Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

As with everything I've ever read by Vivian Vande Velde, this is an absolute delight and an exemplar in its genre.