In this book, Princess Emeralda (who prefers to be called Emma) spends a day walking in the swamp to avoid her critical mother and a visit from snobby Prince Jorge. She has always thought of the swamp as a magical place and in this case it is true.
She meets a frog there who is desperate that she kiss him in order to help him regain his human prince form. After much discussion she does kiss the frog, but then she turns into a frog as well. Though you may recognize such a story line from a recent movie, this 2002 book by E D Baker is a much different tale.
Emma's frog prince has to rescue her from a hungry heron and a snake, and also introduce her to eating mosquitoes. However, when they try to meet the witch who enchanted him into a frog they find she is happy to see them. She is searching for ingredients needed for a potion, and frog toes are part of the recipe. She closes them up in a small cage in her cottage while she looks for the rest of the ingredients.
Emma's aunt is a capable witch. Emma knows she herself has some budding magical talent but her spells up until then have gone wrong. Now if they are to escape she not only needs to search a large and heavy spell book (a difficult task for a small frog) but also invoke a spell successfully.
This book is great fun to read and has many engaging personalities in it. One of the best things about the story is that it is book one in the Tales of the Frog Princess series. Though each book can be read alone it is satisfying to know that more adventures with the main characters are ahead.
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