The P*e*r*i*o*d Dress Girls of 2009

Here they are, The P*e*r*i*o*d Dress Gang:
The Red Queen’s Daughter by Jacqueline Kolosov (Hyperion 2009, c2007)
Betraying Season by Marissa Doyle (Henry Holt May 2009)
The King’s Rose by Alisa Libby (Penguin 2009)
A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn (HarperCollins 2009)
The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry (Bloomsbury 2009)
Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George (Bloomsbury 2009)
Envy by Anna Godbersen (HarperCollins 2009)
Warrior Princess by Frewin Jones (HarperCollins 2009)
Hazel by Julie Hearn (Simon & Schuster November 2009)

And a bit less flamboyant and with an animal:
A Voice of Her Own by Barbara Dana (HarperCollins 2009)
The Princess and the Bear by Mette Ivie Harrison (HarperCollins 2009).

I usually try to limit the number of jackets I use to make a point. But here the point is the numbers.
What I want to know is if there’s actual market research that shows that this is a surefire draw for teenage girls. Most of these have already been released – 1/3 of the way through the year. Are there more to come? Why this explosion of photos of young women dressed in fancy gowns from the past?

UPDATE August 1, 2009:  I have added asterisks to the word p*e*r*i*o*d in the title and text of this post because searches for girls p*e*r*i*o*d*s have overwhelmed the search terms used to find this blog. The only thing I can think of to do is stretch the word out with asterisks and never use those two words together again!

Red Queen’s Daughter: The orphaned daughter of Katherine Parr and Henry VIII, sixteen-year-old Mary Seymour vies to gain acceptance and fend off her jealous relatives and castle-mates as she enters into Queen Elizabeth’s court. Ages 12+. Reviews 1, 2, 3.
Betraying Season: In 1838, Penelope Leland goes to Ireland to study magic and prove to herself that she is as good a witch as her twin sister Persy, but when Niall Keating begins to pay her court, she cannot help being distracted. Ages 14+. Reviews: 1.
King’s Rose:  Catharine Howard recounts the events in her life that led to her being groomed for marriage at the age of fifteen to King Henry VIII, her failure to produce an heir to the throne, and her quick execution. Ages 12+. Reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4. Book Trailer.
Kiss in Time: Sixteen-year-old Princess Talia persuades seventeen-year-old Jack, the modern-day American who kissed her awake after a 300-year sleep, to take her to his Miami home, where she hopes to win his love before the witch who cursed her can spirit her away. Ages 12+. Reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4.
Amaranth Enchantment: Orphaned at age five, Lucinda, now fifteen, stands with courage against the man who took everything from her, aided by a thief, a clever goat, and a mysterious woman called the Witch of Amaranth, while the prince she knew as a child prepares to marry, unaware that he, too, is in danger. Ages 10-14. Reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4.
Princess of the Midnight Ball: A retelling of the tale of twelve princesses who wear out their shoes dancing every night, and of Galen, a former soldier now working in the king’s gardens, who follows them in hopes of breaking the curse. Ages 12+. Reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
Envy: Ages 14+. Reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4.
Warrior Princess: After a deadly attack on her home, fifteen-year-old Princess Branwen meets a mystical woman in white who prophesies that Branwen will save her homeland from falling to the Saxons. Ages 12+. Reviews: 1, 2, 3.
Hazel: Thirteen-year-old Hazel leaves her comfortable, if somewhat unconventional, London home in 1913 after her father has a breakdown, and goes to live in the Caribbean on her grandparents’ sugar plantation where she discovers some shocking family secrets. Ages 12+.
Voice of Her Own: A fictionalized first-person account of revered American poet Emily Dickinson’s girlhood in mid-nineteenth-century Amherst, Massachusetts. Ages 12+.
Princess and the Bear: A hound who was once a princess and a bear who was once a king travel back in time to save a kingdom and find their human selves. Ages 12+.