The Frog Princess - This fairy tale makeover hasn't made much improvement on the original

The Frog Princess: Book One in the Tales Of The Frog Princess series

Target group: 8-12 year old girls

The Frog Princess by E.D. Baker has two points of reference for the modern reader: The Frog Prince, the original fairy tale on which it is (fairly loosely) based; and The Princess and the Frog, the Disney movie which is (again, fairly loosely) based on it. Sadly, it surpasses neither. The Frog Princess lacks the simplicity and charm of the fairytale genre (albeit it lacks some of the sexism and low standards of hygiene too), and also goes without the interesting setting, cool conspiracy, voodoo doctor, talking Cajun firefly, and trumpet playing alligator of the Disney film.

But I’ve never seen the Disney film, and so wasn’t disappointed by the general lack of trumpet playing alligators. I sought out The Frog Princess because I’d started reading it three or four years ago, borrowing the book from a neighbouring student in a particularly long and boring maths class. It seemed like a good story, and in the beginning, it is. Although the writing is a bit awkward, the story’s heroine has a sort of tilted way of looking at the world that makes her first person narration enjoyable to read. The beginning also hooks the reader in its flipping of the traditional fairy tale, where instead of going, “Ew! A frog!” and running away, Emma, the heroine, actually listens to the frog and actually kisses him. Straight away. No whining about getting warts on her lips or anything.

(Actually, she does leave him in the swamp the first time she meets him so she can go about her daily business while surreptitiously pondering his purpose in life for two pages. But that’s in large friendly print and you can always skip it if you get bored.)

Anyway, Emma kisses the frog (named Eadric) and, because two humans are a very boring set of heroes, she turns into a frog herself. Which is not meant to happen, so she and Eadric set off to find out what went wrong.

So The Frog Princess has a decent start, and that’s half the battle. Sadly, the second half of the battle didn’t receive quite so much attention. One has medium to high expectations when Emma and newly acquired friend-who-is-definitely-not-her-boyfriend set off on their adventures – which slowly sink as their first rather uneventful adventure stretches on and the pages in your right hand start to thin, and you realise that this journey, brief stop, and return is in fact the plot of the whole book. The “climax” is equally flat: attempts to build up tension are left too late to make much difference. There are a few laughs, maybe a tinge of the warm fuzzies, but overall a disappointment. Which is really sad, because they live in a world filled with trolls and dragons and witches and gryphons, and what do they do? Hang around in swamps. Honestly.

However, if you are looking at this book for a present for a girl, say twelve or under (I’m afraid most adults will be bored to tears), I’d suggest you get it in a set with its immediate sequel, Dragon Breath. Because for all I’ve said about The Frog Princess, it is actually the first in a fairly good series, Tales Of The Princess Frog. The rest of the books pick up the pace, add more humour, build up more of the relationship between Emma and Eadric, increase the relevance of the fantasy elements, and are generally worth snoring through the first book’s dull bits for.

Lyz’s rating:

The Frog Princess: 5

Tales Of The Frog Princess Series: 8