The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald

This story follows an 8-year-old little Princess named Irene, who lives in a farmhouse castle down the hill from her “King Papa’s” Castle. She spends most of her days with her nursemaid, Lootie, who’s been taking care of her since her mother got ill. Irene discovers a magical thread left by her great-great-grandmother to guide her through danger. With the help of a brave miner boy named Curdie, she uncovers and foils a plot by goblins to attack the castle.

Reading Level: Ages 8-12

Read Aloud Age: Ages 5+

Although this is about an 8-year-old, because of the cultural/period gap in the writing, I might wait until my child was old enough to understand reading words like “queer.” The insistence on the kiss as a thank you is a relatively small part of the story but felt very emphasized at that point in the story. Because of both the different language used and slightly odd cultural behaviors, I might talk to her about these cultural differences in the language and customs of the time before letting her read it while also having conversations throughout the book. I would do this as an audiobook with maybe a 3rd or 4th grader but wouldn’t give it as a reading assignment until the child was proficient in reading longer chapter books and had experience reading other books from older contexts – possibly 5th or 6th grade. There is magic in this book, but it is never explicitly or overtly talked about as magic, it just happens.

Language:
The word “queer” is used a handful of times as in its original connotation, in place of the word ‘strange.’ The word “ugly” is used in place of ‘rude’. When the Princess snuggles up to her King Papa, Lootie, and her Grandmother. It uses the word “bosom.”

Questionable Behaviors:
The relationship between Lootie and the Princess struck me as a bit strange to read in our modern context – Lootie doesn’t read like an adult who knows how to act like an adult. The Princess seems to take a lot of responsibility for things that go wrong to protect Lootie.

Sexual Content:
When Curdie gets Irene and Lootie back safely, Princess Irene promises to give Curdie a kiss. Lottie convinces her to wait, but it’s a big deal about a Princess keeping her promise to kiss Curdie. In the end, when Curdie saves the day, her King Papa encourages her to keep her promise and she gives Curdie a big kiss on the lips.

Other Things to Note:
The Princess spends little time with her father, King Papa, but when she does, they have a sweet and endearing relationship. The “animals” that belong to the Goblins are described as a bit scary but only appear briefly in the story. In Chapter 7 during a conversation between the Goblins, the Goblins casually talk about the previous Goblin Queen dying in childbirth. In Chapter 11, after another encounter with the Great-great-Grandmother, she asks the Princess to keep a secret about their most recent meeting because the adults wouldn’t believe her anyway. In previous meetings, the grandmother insisted she is truthful because they would think she was making it up, so the grandmother isn’t consistent on when to tell the truth and when to keep things to herself.

Dyslexic thoughts:
The combination of the older style of writing (MacDonald wrote in the 19th Century), plus his style of adding random details inside the character’s thoughts or author’s detail, is hard for a young, untrained dyslexic to follow. I struggled to follow plot points as a young, elementary student when the author went on side tangents. It’s not so bad though that I wouldn’t recommend to a dyslexic who has received reading therapy but might wait until they’ve gotten to a comfortable reading and comprehension level. I would also suggest reading it with them to check that they were following along if comprehension is needed.

This review was written by Good Book Mom contributor, Brittney. To learn more about Brittney, click HERE.

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