"This debut novel follows the adventures of a 14-year-old princess and the talking frog she meets one day in a swamp," said PW. "The tale offers peppy dialogue and some comical scenes." Ages 8-up. (Oct.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Gr 4-6-An amusing fairy-tale adventure that takes the frog-turned-prince story a little further. Princess Emeralda is incredibly clumsy, she brays like a donkey when she laughs, and she would rather spend time outdoors or learning magic from her witch-aunt Grassina than marry self-centered Prince Jorge. When she runs off to the nearby swamp, she meets "Frog" who, naturally, claims to be an enchanted prince and begs her for a spell-breaking kiss. But when she finally complies, something goes terribly wrong, and suddenly Emma is a green-skinned, pond-hopping frog. She and Eadric spend the rest of the book trying to undo the spells that have bewitched them, struggling to avoid a dragon, a frog-eating dog, and an inept angry witch along the way. When they are finally released from their enchantments, it's clear they will live a happy-if rather unconventional-life together. Baker's characters, especially Emma and Eadric, are more than meets the eye. The tale moves at a good pace, and, though the happy ending is predictable, the trials and tribulations that precede it are interesting. However, it's difficult to determine the book's audience. While the story would appeal to primary to intermediate grade girls, the vocabulary is rather sophisticated and seems to be more suited to young adults. Perhaps it would work best as a read-aloud. For fairy-tale themes more in tune with their specific audiences, turn to Donna Jo Napoli's The Prince of the Pond (Dutton, 1992) for intermediates, and her Zel (Puffin, 1998) or Beast (Atheneum, 2000) for the older crowd.-Nancy Menaldi-Scanlan, LaSalle Academy, Providence, RI Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.
Taking a princess's-eye view, Baker reworks the traditional story into high-spirited romantic comedy. Desperate for any alternative to a forced marriage, Princess Emma nerves herself to kiss a talking frog--and turns into one herself. As curses can only be removed by the witch who casts them, Emma and glib new acquaintance Prince Eadric of Upper Montevista set out to hunt her up. Fraught with dangers and punctuated with droll interludes as Emma struggles to get the hang of her new limbs and tongue, this shared quest is, naturally, just the ticket for cementing a close relationship. Boastful, libidinous, tender of ego, reckless, and unable to look beyond the next meal, Eadric is less archetypal hero than typical specimen of inept male, but he does have a good heart, and by the time the two achieve human form again, Emma will have no other--for a friend, that is: marriage will have to wait until she finishes a course in witchcraft. Like Donna Jo Napoli's Prince of the Pond (1992), this gives the well-known folktale a decidedly less than "Grimm" cast, and fans of Gail Carson Levine's "Princess Tales" should leap for it. (Fiction. 11-13)
While this twist on the fairy tale “The Frog Prince” is well read by Katherine Kellgren, she sounds too old for 14-year-old Emma. She is convincing as Aunt Christine and other adult witches and at the story’s detailed look into a frog’s world, including the tastiness of various bugs and descriptions of a frog’s slimy skin. As Kellgren successfully contrasts Emma’s awkwardness as a princess with her gracefulness as a frog, we grow to appreciate the character’s wits and adaptability. Kellgren’s delivery of the ending is bouncy as everyone is turned back into humans and lives happily ever after. A.G.H. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine
