Frozen Prince (Nesterling's Excellent Fantasy Novel)

Author: Nesbit
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2003-01-01
Features: Frosty the Prince is a modern fairy tale. Long ago, there was a small country, and a big river flowed through it, dividing the territory in half. The king and queen were in disagreement and constantly argued. Eventually, they decided to divorce. The king continued to rule the right bank of the river, while the queen moved to the left bank. They had only one son, and neither was willing to give him up. The little prince was torn between his mother and father, wanting to stay with his mother but also unwilling to leave his father. He put on the crown of wisdom and finally came up with a good idea: he placed his bed across the narrowest part of the river. Every night, he slept in the middle of the king and queen's territories. At night, the king and queen would fight over the prince, pulling the bed to their respective sides. As a result, the riverbank collapsed, and the prince's bed fell into the river and drifted downstream. The next morning, the prince was stopped by a small wooden house in the river. He saw a beautiful young girl rowing a boat. This land was the Kingdom of Birds, where the birds flew overhead all day, keeping watch over their territory to prevent outsiders from invading. The girl was the new bride of the bird and the only resident of the kingdom. The bird strictly controlled the girl's freedom of movement, and she felt as if she were living in a cage. The girl and the prince successfully escaped the Kingdom of Birds by taking advantage of the bird's sleep, and they found the girl's beloved teddy bear in the forest. Soon after, the prince was kidnapped in the forest and locked in a cellar. In the cellar, the prince met a little monster who lived there. It looked like both a beaver and a hamster, and a little like a field mouse. The little monster told the prince that there were two bad brothers living in the house, a tall, thin one and a short, fat one. They planned to use the prince to exchange money with the king and queen, and then kill him. With the help of the little monster, the prince escaped the cellar and locked the two bad brothers inside. As he left, the little monster gave the prince a flying pillow. The flying pillow carried the prince up the river, bringing him to a small island in the middle of the river. On the island lived an old man. There was a big tree at the entrance to his home, a wise tree that knew everything about the stars, the earth, and could predict everything. The old man sent two pigeons to deliver messages about the prince to the king and queen. The king and queen rushed to the small island in the middle of the river and, with the help of the wise tree, they finally reconciled. The prince was reunited with his parents.