The Frog Princess (Tales of the Frog Princess) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Even as a little girl, I had thought that the swamp was a magical place where new lives began and old ones ended, where enemies..." (more)
Key Phrases: swamp fairy, talking frogs, Prince Jorge, Li'l Stinker, Prince Eadric (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This debut novel follows the adventures of 14-year-old Princess Emeralda and the talking frog she meets one day in a swamp. The frog begs her to give him a kiss so that he will turn back into Prince Eadric, his identity before an evil witch turned him into an amphibian. When the young royal obliges, she, too, is transformed into a frog, and the two leap off in search of the spell-casting witch to ask her to reverse her handiwork. Describing the duo's futile quest in laborious detail, the author pads her tale with some curiously drab characters, including another witch (who hopes to use Emeralda and Eadric in a spell she's concocting) and a bat and snake who reside in her cottage. The tale occasionally offers peppy dialogue and some comical scenes-particularly as the newly transformed Emeralda adjusts to catching flies with her tongue ("My eye-tongue coordination wasn't very good," she admits). Unfortunately, the plot doesn't make much of the magical elements (for example, the characters' encounters with a dragon and a nymph seem inconsequential), resulting in a disappointingly flat fantasy. Ages 8-14.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 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 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children's Books (November 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582347999
• ISBN-13: 978-1582347998
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #289,418 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A frogging fabulous read!, May 2, 2005

By	M. A. Bechaz "bookaholic" (Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you like fairy tales, and you have a sense of humour, then I've no doubt you will love this book just as much as I did.

Once I started reading this, I just couldn't put it down. It's got the whole shebang: romance, humour, adventure, magic, witches both good and bad, fickle faeries, awesome dragons, and even a bat with agoraphobia.

This is an imaginative retake on the old Frog Prince story. By a strange twist of magic, when the Princess goes to kiss the frog--POOF!--she is also turned into a frog. From then on, the Frog Prince and Princess have to fight to survive in a less than frog-friendly world, and try to regain their former human selves.

The characters in this are adorable. Princess Emma is hardly your steroetypical princess. She's clumsy and awkward and headstrong, far more at home in the swamp than she was in her castle. Prince Eadric, the frog she kisses, is also far from being a typical prince. He has a healthy sense of witty sarcasm, and an even healthier appetite for food. He's also spent so long asking princesses to kiss him that he's become a little set in his ways, and never gives up asking Emma for a smooch. But he's got a good heart to match those amorous wiles, and courage to spare.

This is a fast paced book that is so good, you'll be sad when it's over.

I can't wait to read the sequels...

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable but insubstantial fairy tale fluff, June 11, 2004

By	Jennifer Mo "ailanna" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It has been well documented that a kiss is much more than the brief contact between two pairs of lips.

Indeed, as E. D. Baker points out, its transformative abilities have been well noted in stories as disparate as Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and, of course, The Frog Prince. The kiss has lost none of its potency in Baker's skewed fairy tale, as fourteen year old Princess Emeralda discovers. Succumbing to the pleas of yet another talking frog claiming to be an enchanted prince (goodness, there seem to be rather a lot of those around), she reluctantly puckers up-- and is herself changed into a frog. She and her froggy companion, Prince Eadric, embark upon a quest to regain their humanity; it is, as Eadric puts it, "a matter of life or froghood." Their everything-but-the-kitchen-sink adventures include amusing episodes with Vannabe, the would-be wicked witch, a disgruntled swamp fairy, various enchanted and/or talking creatures, several kisses (few of them between humans), and insects of varying degrees of tastiness. Fireflies, anyone? Or perhaps a nice, crunchy dragonfly?

The first person narrative has a certain sprightly charm with a number of humorous and clever garnishes (the trash can vs. the trash can't; the difference between them becomes crucial when the contents of the trash can't are freed by Emma's spell), and as a whole is seldom less than enjoyable, though I was rolling my eyes when it came to a cartoonish talking bat named--wait for it--Li'l Stinker. The dialogue can be a bit wooden and very occasionally descends into downright corniness ("I would never have met the best friend I've ever had," says Emma to Eadric in a particularly cliche instance), but the book works well when being flippant and tongue in cheek, which it mostly is.

The greatest problem with the book is not what it does wrong, but what it fails to do, i.e. to be a really clever, memorable modern fairy tale. All the stereotypes of fairy tales are present, most turned on their heads with moderate success. But while they do subvert fairy tale conventions, neither characters, story, nor world really take on a life of their own. There is nothing to make Baker's enchanted forest or generic fantasy world stand out from any other, and the characters are almost equally wanting. Even as the narrator of her own story, Emma comes across as just another member of a new generation of unconventional princesses (brave, kind hearted, but also shy and clumsy), and Eadric, amusingly self centered and imperfect, is only a little more individual. While reading The Frog Princess, I was reminded of a host of other modern fairy tale characters with more, well, character. Grassina pales beside the forceful, relentlessly no-nonsense Morwen of Patricia C. Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles, and Eadric is nothing to Diana Wynne Jones's flamboyantly egotistical and selfish but lovable Howl. The pointed wit and skilful manipulation of fairy tales seen in Patrice Kindl's Goose Chase and Vivian Vande Velde's The Rumpelstiltskin Problem make The Frog Princess seem a trifle labored in comparison.

Writing skewed, young adult fairy tales has become a very popular thing to do, with the result that a number of books have been recently published that deal with the same basic themes. Fairy tale aficionados will enjoy Baker's offering, but may find themselves returning to stronger novels in this subgenre. The Frog Princess is an amusing little book, but it covers no new ground and leaves no deep impression.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious New Fairy Tale for Middle Readers, November 11, 2004

By	Erika Sorocco (Southern California, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Fourteen-year-old Emeralda is no ordinary Princess, for her laugh is like a donkey braying, and she couldn't be more clumsy. This information is constantly thrown in her face by her Mother, the Queen, which is why Emeralda "Emma," is often found by the swamp. Which brings us to today. Emma has run into a frog, a talking frog, who insists that he is Prince Eadric, and that Emma must kiss him for him to turn back into a Prince. However, the kiss goes awry, and suddenly, Emma is just as much a frog as Prince Eadric. Now the two of them must try to survive as frogs, as they try to undo the spell, and bring them both back to their normal, human forms, before they are another animals dinner.

I love fairy tales, and E.D. Baker's THE FROG PRINCESS, is no exception. Her wonderful descriptions of life as a frog are both entertaining and suspenseful, while the entire premise of the story will keep all readers glued to the book until the very last page, in order to find out what will happen at the end. Overall, this is a lovely new novel for both male and female middle readers who enjoy a wacky fairy tale.

Erika Sorocco
Book Review Columnist for The Community Bugle Newspaper