What 'Princess Academy' means to Shannon Hale 20 years later — and to its readers

SALT LAKE CITY — When author Shannon Hale's third novel, "Princess Academy," was first published 20 years ago, she says she was "so insecure" about it.

She remembers attending a signing for the middle-grade novel at The King's English Bookshop in Salt Lake City not long after it was published, where she actively tried to dissuade would-be readers from buying the book.

"I said, '"The Goose Girl" is in paperback!'" Hale recently told the Deseret News, referring to her first published novel, which had been released only a couple years earlier. "'That's less money! Maybe get ("Princess Academy") from the library.'"

Though she personally liked the book, she was still early enough in her career that she didn't have much confidence it would do well.

"I thought, 'This book is quiet and weird, like me,'" Hale said. "And I know people are going to be expecting a certain kind of story from the title and the premise, and then they're going to read it and be like, 'This is not what I was expecting.'"

So when "Princess Academy" didn't make much of a splash at first, Hale wasn't that surprised. But then she received a call that changed everything: "Princess Academy" had been awarded a Newbery Honor.

Now, 20 years later, it's sold over 1 million copies and been translated into 25 languages, according to Hale — and it's won the hearts of countless readers. In those same 20 years, things have changed for Hale too. The Utah-based author has written a total of 50 books, one of which has been adapted into a movie, and she has plenty more books in the works; and on a personal level, after writing "Princess Academy" with a baby in her lap, she now has four children.

And at a more recent book signing at Folklore Bookshop in Midway, Hale was no longer trying to steer readers away from "Princess Academy." Instead, at the event where the book's 20th anniversary was celebrated, she talked about how much "Princess Academy" means to her.

Writing 'Princess Academy'

In some ways, the story of "Princess Academy" plays out like a fairy tale. A group of girls has to leave their small village to go to a school where they will learn to become princesses, so that one of them can be chosen to marry the prince. But while the story features magic, the girls also learn more unexpected skills like diplomacy, which help them protect themselves from dangerous bandits, and even to build their village's economy.

The original idea for the book, though, "wasn't that spectacular," according to Hale. During a conversation with her husband about a book he was reading, he used the phrase "tutor to the princesses" — and the wheels started turning for "Princess Academy."

Hale continued to come back to the idea as she worked on other projects, and she found further inspiration in elements of her own life.

For example, the mountain village where the book's main character, Miri, lives was inspired by the mountains of the Wasatch Front in Hale's home state of Utah, particularly Little Cottonwood Canyon.

Hale also feels like she has "a lot in common" with Miri, who she describes as a girl who "didn't quite fit in, which certainly was something I felt my whole life."

"I think many, many kids do," she continued, adding that Miri "wanted to be useful, wanted to matter, and she didn't know what that looked like. ... Her current circumstances were very narrow and didn't allow her to really stretch her wings and explore, you know, her full range of what she had to give back to this world, which is something that I definitely related to."

Once "Princess Academy" was published, it took some time for it to find its footing. Hale's nerves about how the book would be received at first seemed justified — it received some good reviews but didn't seem poised to make a big impression, she said. But then it was awarded the Newbery Honor.

The award was significant for multiple reasons, not least of which was that Hale was the very first Utah author to receive the Newbery Honor, which is one of the most prestigious awards in children's literature (a second Utah author, Christian McKay Heidicker for "Scary Stories for Young Foxes," followed her nearly 15 years later).

But it was also significant because Hale believes that the award opened "Princess Academy" to a much wider audience than it might have had otherwise.

"It shined a spotlight on a book that I think a certain segment of the reading population would have dismissed because of the name and the premise," Hale said. "They would have decided, this is not literary, this is fluffy, this is not worth my time."

Instead, the book has now lived on with readers even two decades later. Coming back from a book tour for her newest book, "Dream On," Hale said that she had both children and adults approaching her to tell her they had read and reread "Princess Academy" and "adored it," which she called "so gratifying."

Read the entire story at Deseret.com.

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