Outlaw Princess of Sherwood

September 1, 2003
Nancy Springer's third volume of Tales of Rowan Hood, Outlaw Princess of Sherwood, follows the band of teenage outlaws led by the daughter of Robin Hood, as they take in a new member-a princess who has fled the prospect of a horrible arranged marriage. Now the king will do anything to get his daughter back-even put her mother in a cage in the forest, as bait.

September 1, 2003
Gr 5-7-It has been nearly a year since Princess Ettarde escaped from a fancy carriage to the cover of Sherwood Forest to avoid an arranged marriage. She has been happy living as Etty, one of the band of Rowan Hood, until her father and his troops arrive and place her thinly clad mother in a gilded cage to lure Etty back to her regal life. The teen dearly loves her mother, and resists the urge to flee. With her friends in the Rowan band as well as the help of Robin Hood and some of his men, she works through a clever plan to resolve this crisis. King Solon has given his daughter a good education in Greek philosophy, which she puts to use in confronting him, and applies her skills as a logician in many situations in the story. There is conflict and action from cover to cover as characters ply their varied skills to achieve goals and live life on their own terms, in a beautifully depicted forest setting. Fans of the series will enjoy this third installment; while new readers may be puzzled by references to past events, and will not fully understand the characters, they should still find the story satisfying.-Laura Scott, Farmington Community Library, MI

Copyright 2003 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2003
Gr. 4-7. In this third installment of Springer's Tales of Rowan Hood, a series that imagines the merry men sharing Sherwood Forest with an offshoot band led by Robin Hood's daughter, the past of another of Rowan's outlaws rears its ugly head. The runaway princess Ettarde finds herself baited into a renewed battle of wills with her father, King Solon, who has placed a cage deep in the woods and locked the queen inside. Knowing he means to lure her to her mother's aid, then push her into a dreaded marriage, Etty concocts a plot that forces her father to deal with her on her own terms. Backstory is gracefully interwoven, but there's enough continuity with the previous books to satisfy old hands (Lionel still incenses Etty by calling her "dear lady"), even as Springer introduces another gender-bending subplot. The ending brings Etty back to the threshold of courtly life, but tantalizing loose ends suggest that future visits with Springer's eccentric, appealing outlaws may be imminent.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2004
Springer's third Rowan Hood book focuses on Etty, a princess who joined Rowan's band of teen outlaws after running from an arranged marriage. Etty's cruel father imprisons his wife in a cage in the hope that the princess will turn herself in to free her mother. Marked by exciting action, interesting characters, and an intriguing moral dilemma, the short novel will appeal to reluctant readers as well as historical fiction fans.

(Copyright 2004 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)