Hamster Princess: Ratpunzel

Written by Ursula Vernon

Narrated by Eva Kaminsky

Rapunzel gets the rodent treatment in this third installment of Ursula Vernon's hilarious Hamster Princess series Princess Harriet Hamsterbone hasn't been home for long, but she's already missing her life of grand adventure. How's a girl supposed to have any fun when her parents are constantly reminding her to be careful and act like a princess? So when her pal Prince Wilbur needs help retrieving a stolen hydra egg, Harriet happily takes up the quest. The thief's trail leads them to a wicked witch and a tall tower. It isn't long before Harriet discovers that the egg isn't the only one locked inside.The witch's cook needs rescuing too, and there's more to her tail than meets the eye!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 18, 2016
• ISBN: 9781501939631

Ursula Vernon

URSULA VERNON is a freelance illustrator, artist, and, in her words, a "creator of weird thingies." Nurk is her first book for young readers. She lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Reviews for Hamster Princess

[jennybeast · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Man, Harriet's adventures are so hilarious! Also, I love that she answers everything with violence. It speaks to my heart. And, of course, it's great that her friends hold her back from said violence. Sure. Whatever.

[fred_mouse · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Adored it. I love the way Vernon reworks both generic fairytale tropes and specific stories. Here, I particularly love that the idea of heroism and princess-as-trophy-wife get further separated -- that Harriet keeps getting involved in rescues, not because she is after some specific (extrinsic) reward, but because she does what is right.

[herenya_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Like Of Mice and Magic, this is another entertaining twist on a fairytale. When Harriet helps her friend Wilbur to find a stolen hydra egg, they come across someone else in need of help -- a rat with a very long tail. “Don’t sing,” said Wilbur, putting his hands over his ears. “You’re a great fighter and a pretty good princess and you’re one of the smartest people I know, but you really, really cannot sing.” Harriet laughed. It was nice of Wilbur to say that she was smart. She didn’t mind that she couldn’t sing. She didn’t want to be an opera singer anyway. Opera singers hardly ever got slay dragons.

[jjmcgaffey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fun as usual. Harriet is really far too sensible to be a princess...and almost too sensible to be a hero. I do like that she's having to deal with no longer being invincible. Fun setup, neat handling of the problem - I'm glad Ratpunzel got to act for herself, though she doesn't seem so excited about it. Nice book, I want to read the next.

[salsabrarian · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Harriet the Hamster Princess is at it again, this time to save Ratpunzel, a sweet-natured but naïve rat imprisoned in a tower by a snarly gerbil with magical powers. Sly humor, a no-nonsense heroine, and wacky adventure always make this series an enjoyable read-aloud for young families as well as funny pleasure reading for the newly fluent reader.