The Queen’s Granddaughter

A precocious princess must contend with ethical and physical peril in this immersive historical adventure from Zahler (Wild Bird). Twelve-year-old Princess Blanca prefers playing with her best friend Suna, whose hearing was impaired by a childhood illness, to devoting herself to her royal studies. As the youngest of Castile’s two princesses, Blanca knows that all aristocratic duties will fall to her beloved sister, Urraca. While eavesdropping on her father and a trusted adviser, Blanca overhears that the siblings’ grandmother, Queen Eleanor of Aquitane, will chaperone a princess of Castile to France, where she will enter a political marriage. To Blanca’s shock, the queen chooses not Urraca but Blanca. Together with Queen Eleanor, her sizable retinue, and Suna, Blanca embarks on an arduous journey over the mountains from Spain into France. Along the way, she must reconcile the privilege she experiences as royalty with the discrimination Suna endures due to her hearing impairment and “unchristian” religious beliefs, and navigate life-or-death situations that force her to reexamine her values and choose the type of leader she wants to become. Smoothly flowing prose accessibly presents myriad historical and philosophical concepts. Methodically generated interactions between empathetic characters provide ample opportunity for readers to consider how differing perspectives come together and how the past informs the future. Ages 8–12. Agent: Jennifer Laughran, Andrea Brown Literary. (Mar.)