Wellspring of Magic

      We just finished reading Wellspring of Magic by Jan Fields as Punky's bedtime story.  I did not love this book.  It wasn't horrible, but it had nothing at all to set it apart or recommend it.

      It was an extremely formulaic story that unabashedly pandered to princess fantasies.  There was a princess for all the most common princess sterotypes - the mermaid, the animal princess who can talk to bears, the dancing princess, and so on ad nauseum. 

      I can tell that Punky is finally outgrowing her princess phase thank all that is holy.  She wasn't all that enraptured by this book even though she enjoyed it.  I think she would have liked it a lot more 2 or 3 years ago.

      At the very least, I can say the girls in the story were decently strong female characters.  If only in as much as they didn't need rescuing.  Throughout the book they used their *ahem* "talents" to work through their problems.

      This book might be better suited as an easy read for a child just getting into chapter books than as a family read at bedtime.  I neither recommend for or against this book.  Take it or leave it.