Author: Kristiana Gregory
First Published: November 2002
Publisher: Scholastic
Series: The Royal Diaries
187 pages (hardcover)
Continuing my Royal Diaries nostalgic re-readathon, I have just finished this one on Eleanor. I actually don’t even remember if I read this particular one as a kid, though as an adult now, I find myself fascinated with Eleanor of Aquitaine’s life.
I think this book is a great way for kids to be introduced to this princess/queen. This book focuses on Eleanor’s life as a pre-teen. In this story, she is living happily with her father, the Duke of Aquitaine, and her younger sister Petra. The Duke of Aquitaine holds even more land than the King of France himself, and as the Duke has no male heirs, the lands will pass to Eleanor one day. Eleanor worries about how a lot of people seem to despise her father, especially when he decides to help Count Geoffrey of Anjou invade Normandy. When her father returns, he is a changed man, becoming more kind and spiritual, although many doubt this is a sincere change. When the Duke unexpectantly dies, Eleanor realizes she has become the most eligible bride in the country, since she is in control of so much land, and is soon to be married to Prince Louis the Younger of France.
This portrayal of Eleanor is mostly made up, I think, since even the historical note at the end said the real Eleanor was said to be extravagant and spoiled, which is not really shown in this book. However, she was also said to be headstrong and carefree, which this book Eleanor certainly was. Book Eleanor was also very much a family person and adored her father and younger sister, as well as a person who was quite kind to her servants. So basically, she was portrayed in the most positive light possible, which is how all the other royalty in this book series are portrayed too. Not that that’s a bad thing, exactly, but the princesses all kind of blend together since they are not really made to be unique. I guess they want to set a good example for the middle schoolers reading this book, which is understandable, and I suppose one would not notice unless one actually plans to read more than few books from this series.
Characterization is basically my only complaint with this book. Other than that, I enjoyed reading this quite a bit. You get to learn the circumstances that brought Eleanor to become Queen of France, and there is also quite a lot about what life was like back in the medieval times. I knew the medieval times was a “dirtier” time, with ticks and bugs crawling in people’s hair being a regular thing, but I was really horrified at the scene where Eleanor sees one of her servant boys throw up a mass of white worms, and a physician pulling out a long white worm the length of an arm from a girl’s head! Poor medieval people, I thought!
All in all, this was a pretty good book, I think a middle schooler would enjoy reading this one. It ended off at a good spot too, right when Eleanor becomes Queen, so that kids who are interested in what happened after she became Queen have a good place to start.
My Rating: 4/5
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