The Frog Princess by E.D. Baker (214 pages)
Princess Emeralda, or Emma, ventures out to the swamp to avoid her arranged match with Prince Jorge and she runs into a talking frog. He admits he is Prince Eadric and that all he needs is a kiss to become human again. She’s unsure, but decides to do it anyway. The kiss has the opposite effect though - it turns her into a frog! Soon, the two go on an adventure to find the witch who originally turned Eadric into a frog and find out why the spell wasn’t reversed when Emma kissed him. While on their journey, they encounter another witch who is set on using the two frogs in a potion, but with the help of the witch’s bat, they escape. Emma and Eadric are feeling a bit hopeless until they find Emma’s aunt and she tells them that Emma’s bracelet had a magical power to reverse any spell cast on her, which meant that instead of turning Eadric into a human, it turned her into a frog. Will they two ever become human again - or will the spell last a lifetime?
Miss Simer’s Rating: ***
This is not your typical fairy tale princess story! Young Christian wanders away from his family as a small child and is found by a grumpy troll who lives in a cave in the forest. Edric, the troll, raises Christian as his own child. While growing up, Christian spies Princess Marigold from afar and begins a pigeon-mailing relationship with her. Princess Marigold is quite unhappy because her mother, Queen Olympia, is desperately trying to marry off Marigold to any prince who will take her. Ed decides to send Christian off into the “real world,” where he is able to meet Marigold in person when he takes a job in her castle. He overhears Queen Olympia plotting to kill Marigold and the king so she can take the throne and Christian vows to save the princess. Will there be a happily-ever-after for this couple?
In this modern-day retelling of the classic Beauty and the Beast fairy tale, sixteen-year-old New York private school student Kyle Kingsbury is anything but kind to his classmates. He is known for being extremely handsome, yet very snobby and cruel to others. An unfortunate run-in with a witch transforms him into a hideous beast. The witch tells him he has two years to kiss his true love in order to break the spell. Sent away by his high-profile father, Kyle moves to a mansion in the city where he closes himself off from the outside world. He only has contact with two people: Will, his blind tutor, and Magda, his live-in maid. At first desperate to find a girl who will kiss him, he looks for love on the internet and at Halloween parties. All tries end in disaster. Soon, a bedraggled man breaks into Kyle’s home in an attempt to make a little drug money, but Kyle catches him red-handed. In exchange for not turning him in, the man offers Kyle his daughter Lindy. Lindy is sent to stay with Kyle and she hates him for it. After time, the two are able to share their interest in books, snow, and roses. Will Kyle find his true love in time to reverse the spell, or will he live his life as a beast forever?
Are you intrigued by the world in the Shrek movies, where fairy tale people and creatures live together and legends are made?