cover image The Frog Prince, Continued

The Frog Prince, Continued

Jon Scieszka. Viking Children's Books, $15.99 (32pp) ISBN 978-0-670-83421-1

Will Scieszka, who set the record straight in his bestselling The True Story of the Three Little Pigs , let the Frog Prince and the princess who kissed him live happily ever after? Well, maybe--but first the two must weather various marital difficulties. She hates the way he hops around on the furniture instead of slaying dragons, and he complains that she never likes to visit the pond anymore. The bug-eyed, long-tongued prince decides that he will be happy only if he becomes a frog once again, so he runs off in search of a witch to do the job. On the way, he encounters a trio of eccentric hags preoccupied with the plights of other fairy-tale characters, as well as a fairy godmother who is practicing turning various objects into carriages. Though their coloring is somewhat somber, Johnson's ( No Star Nights ; The Salamander Room ) stylized, sophisticated pictures add to the keen humor of this revisionist revelry. Ages 3-8. (May)