Publishers Weekly
As she did in Beastly and A Kiss in Time, Flinn mixes traditional fairy tales with a modern setting in a romance that is clever but not always compelling. When the beautiful princess of Aloria visits the fancy South Beach hotel where kind, 17-year-old Johnny toils in his family's shoe-repair shop, she transforms his monotonous life. The princess promises to marry him if he can find her brother, who a witch has transformed into a frog. Borrowing details from such stories as "The Elves and the Shoemaker" and "The Frog Prince," among others, Flinn sets Johnny on an adventure involving talking animals (actually bewitched humans called "used-to-bes"), greedy giants, and a cloak that can transport Johnny and his best friend Meg anywhere they wish. Johnny and Meg face various villains and tests, from a relentless witch and her goony son to a park ranger who threatens to sell the frog prince on eBay. But readers may tire of the endless cloak hopping; they will have long guessed the book's conclusion, including who Johnny really loves and what really happened to his long-lost father. Ages 12–up. (Feb.)
School Library Journal - Audio
Gr 6–9—Alex Finn's creative fantasy (HarperTeen, 2011) involving a play on many different fairy tales (think The Elves and the Shoemaker meets The Frog Prince, among others) gets a lively narration from Alexander Cendese who perfectly interprets the aspirations and thoughts of Johnny, a hard-working, impoverished high school student striving to keep the family shoe repair shop in a South Beach hotel afloat while also harboring dreams of becoming a shoe designer. Johnny meets a princess at the hotel who asks him to help find her brother, a prince who was turned into a toad. The boy's efforts to rescue the prince turn into a series of quests, many of them at the request of various animals who were once human, such as Cornelius the rat, a former Senator who sounds like a thug from Brooklyn. Cendese perfectly voices the assorted magical creatures. The story includes lots of quotes about shoes by famous and infamous figures, including John Locke. Careful listeners will enjoy the foreshadowing and hints throughout the tale. Comedy outweighs drama here, although there are a few dangerous encounters. An imaginative, enchanting story.—Edie Ching, University of Maryland, College Park
School Library Journal
Gr 6–9—Flinn reimagines a fairy-tale world in her latest novel. Teenaged Johnny works as a cobbler in his mother's shoe repair shop in a posh hotel in South Beach. He spends his days with his friend Meg and designs his own line of shoes while dreaming of wealth to free his family from the confines of poverty. Unexpectedly, the striking Princess Victoriana of Aloria comes to the swanky Miami hotel for a royal visit. The super-hot partying princess pleads for Johnny's help in finding her missing brother, and offers of money and a royal marriage convince him to take her seriously—even when she explains that the prince has been turned into a frog. With the aid of a magical cloak and some headphones that allow him to hear animals speak, Johnny embarks on a journey wherein he encounters talking swans, a fox named Todd, and two angry giants. When he lands in hot water with an evil witch bent on destroying him, Meg comes to his rescue. The pair journey from South Beach to Key West, to Europe, and to Manhattan; and in the end, Johnny finds wealth, fame, and true love. Flinn cleverly plays on some lesser-known fairy tales to make this book a fun, romantic adventure with likable characters. Rapid action and amusing situations make it a quick read that will easily entice even reluctant readers.—Tara Kehoe, Plainsboro Public Library, NJ
Kirkus Reviews
A warmhearted, goofy and occasionally quite silly tale—tales, really— featuring17-year-old Johnny, a poor but honest shoemaker in a luxury hotel on Miami's South Beach who dreams of designer glory and keeping the electricity on. Who should breeze into his hotel but Victoriana, princess of Aloria, complete with a French accent and a hint of magic. Her "bruzzer" is missing! He's been turned into a frog! Johnny must help! What follows is a neatly nested series of fairy-tale mashups. Flinn cleverly uses quotes from the originals as chapter headings, from "The Shoemaker and the Elves" and "The Princess and the Frog" to "The Wild Swans" (which now live in that luxury hotel), "The Firebird" and others. Johnny's best friend Meg has a little magic of her own, and readers will probably want to reach into the pages and smack Johnny silly as he steadfastly misses the signals she sends. The friends proceed through this appealing, magic- and mishap-laced adventure, and it all ends quite nicely, as told in Johnny's clueless but endearing voice. The original tales are explicated briefly at the end. (Fractured fairy tales. 10 & up)
