Books for Christian Girls: "Undercover Princess" by Olivia Jarmusch

About this book:

  “Ten-year-old Princess Millie is thousands of miles away from her Royal Family in Europe, attending a fancy horse school for girls in Kentucky! Upon her arrival at Chestnut Academy, Millie overhears her classmates stating what a “Royal pain” it would be to go to school with a Princess. Millie desperately wants the girls to like her, so she chooses to keep her royal identity hidden. But will a bottle of purple hair-dye be enough to keep her secret? What will happen when everyone finds out who she truly is?
   Join Millie in this horse-lovers dream, as she makes new friends in the saddle, trains for an exciting competition with Starlight the mare, and learns the value of being her true self!”

Series: Book #1 in the “Chestnut Academy” series. Connected to the author’s other series, “The Tales of Tarsurella”, but does not have to be read first or together.

Spiritual Content- Millie’s father tells her to not lose sight of who she is when at the school and that it doesn’t matter what others think of her, adding that she’s a Princess of God and His royal daughter as well; A few mentions of God;
             *Note: Mentions of horses having miracle-working, magical powers (of getting another girl to talk to Millie when upset with her; *Spoiler* when it happens and they talk it out, Millie says it was the power of forgiveness, not the horses *End of Spoiler*); A few mentions of pixie dust, fairy wings, & a fairy godmother; A few mentions of being lucky.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: an ‘oh my stars’, a ‘stinkin’’, a ‘stupid’, two ‘duh’s, and three ‘freakshow/freak’ (said by a mean girl towards Millie); A bit of eye rolling & sass; Falling off of a horse & pain (no major injuries, up to semi-detailed); A girl is scared of horses & nearly falls off of one when riding (which is a scary situation for her and those watching, up to semi-detailed); Millie has first day of school jitters; Millie overhears another student at her school say that the Royal Family of Tarsurella is snooty and stuck up (she’s never met them, but has read all the gossip magazines) and thinks it will be a “royal pain”  to have an “annoying princess” at their school; Millie is desperate for the other girls to like her and dyes her hair for them not to recognize her as the princess (she notes the bottle says to use it with adult supervision, but because her dad is busy and would probably say no, she does it herself and wonders what she’s done when she sees the color; Another girls says her dad would not let her do that to her hair and Millie thinks “Welp. Neither would mine”); Millie is excited to become the “new and improved Millie” who doesn’t get lost in the crowd of all of her siblings and not having to follow in her older sisters’ footsteps (she doesn’t share much about herself to her roommates because of her being a princess and gets tripped up when trying to make conversation); Millie tries to lie to her teacher (it just fell out of her mouth), but the teacher sees through it; *Spoiler* When it’s revealed that Millie is a princess, one of her roommates is very upset that she didn’t share that information and vows to never talking to her again; They talk through things and say they want to be true friends a bit later *End of Spoiler*; A couple snooty girls & their rude comments and taunts to other girls (Millie is uncomfortable with the strife, thinking “Why was everyone acting so competitive? Wasn’t this supposed to be fun?” and tries to reassure the others about having fun and not fretting about things they can’t control; One of Millie’s roommates puts them back in their place a couple of times, but not rudely; Millie falls for a couple of their taunts and talks back, which ends with them taunting her harder and her in tears; *Spoiler* Towards the end, Millie stands up for her roommate that a mean girl is picking on and says that bullying is something she’ll never do *End of Spoiler*); McKayla wants to knock a mean girl off of “her high horse of pride”, but knows that’s wrong; Mentions of lies, lying, & liars; Mentions of bullies & bullying; Mentions of manure; A few mentions of hatred; A few mentions of jealousy (an adult says that “building long-lasting, beautiful friendships is far more rewarding than any old trophy could ever be” and encourages the girls to not fall prey to jealousy, comparison, and competition); A couple mentions of a thief & robbing a place; A mention of gossip magazines;
             *Note: Millie is sad to say goodbye to her father (when dropping her off at the boarding school) and tries not to cry; Mentions of Amelia Earhart (Millie looks up to her); Mentions of brand names (Twizzlers, M&Ms, & Jell-O); A couple mentions of children’s TV show (Barney); A mention of the book/movie ‘The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants’; A mention of a comment being an outrage and compared to if the person said that “boys were cooler than girls”; A mention of a rule for a club being “no boys allowed”.

Sexual Content- N/A.

-Princess Millie of Tarsurella, age 10
                                P.O.V. of Millie
158 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

I’ve been excited for this new Christian middle-grade series since I first heard about it and this first book was so much fun! I’m not a big horse girl, but I can see those who are especially liking this story.

Even though there were mean girls, it was handled well and quickly for the size of the book. It was also really nice to see good adults represented in this story and Millie learn the meaning of being true to herself. The pacing was quick and I’m excited to read the rest of the series as they release!

See y’all on Friday with a new review!