School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-5-- As in The True Story of the Three Little Pigs (Viking, 1989), Scieszka offers another tongue-in-cheek ``rest of the story,'' telling what happens after the Princess kissed the frog. Readers won't be surprised to learn that they do not live ``happily ever after.'' In fact, they're downright miserable. He misses the pond; she's tired of him sticking out his tongue and hopping on the furniture. In desperation, the bug-eyed hero decides to find a witch who can turn him back into the happy frog he once was. Successfully surviving encounters with several sinister but dimwitted witches from other tales, he finally meets Cinderella's Fairy Godmother who tries to help, but the transformation is definitely NOT what he had in mind. As the clock strikes midnight, he returns to human form and hurries home to his beloved Princess where the tale ends unexpectedly, but indeed happily. Johnson's surreal illustrations are right on target for the offbeat story. Painted in deep, shadowy colors and expertly composed, they are filled with subtle and surprising humor that continually rewards viewers with laugh-out-loud visual treats. The overall design is clean and spacious, with figures and objects moving past the ragged borders of the pictures and across the pages, matching the verbal movement perfectly. Readers will relish the pleasure inherent in combining traditional fairy tale motifs with modern, everyday objects and actions. A winner.-- Linda Boyles, Alachua County Library District, Gainesville, FL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
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) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
An alternative view of 'happily ever after' is offered in this iconoclastic look at the prince who was once a frog and the princess bride who kissed away his amphibious appearance. Johnson's paintings are executed in a rich and somber palette. The sophisticated variant on a traditional theme has a wry, adult perspective and yet is accessible to younger readers who enjoy - and understand - parody. From HORN BOOK 1991, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
The co-author (with A. Wolf) of The True Story of the Three Little Pigs (1989) assays another humorous embroidery of a traditional tale with somewhat less notable success. The picture of the erstwhile frog and his princess bickering (``Stop sticking your tongue out like that''; ``How come you never want to go down to the pond anymore?'') is genuinely funny, and the prince's quest for a witch to turn him back into a frog--during which he runs into witches from several other tales--is amusing. But the conclusion--glad to get back to his princess, he kisses her and they both become happy frogs--seems limp and unmotivated. Meanwhile, Johnson's paintings, though he adopts some of Lane Smith's fey menace and induces tension by canting his perspectives, lack Smith's wit, imagination, and masterful sense of design. Still, the situation and dialogue are irreverently comical and Johnson's caricatures are adroitly satirical. It's an entertaining effort-- just not up to that superlative first book. (Picture book. 5+)
Booklist Review
Ages 6-9. We all know about the frog that kissed the princess, turned into a prince, and lived happily ever after--or so the story says. Scieszka, who last time ghosted for a Mr. A. Wolf in the True Story of the Three Little Pigs [BKL S 1 89], now turns to the former frog and his wife, living rather uneasily in the palace. It's difficult to say who's to blame for their marital discord. It's true that the prince is no longer an amphibian, but one doesn't just lose habits like hopping around the furniture. The princess is not pleased. Wondering whether he should return to being a frog, the prince sets out to find someone to change him back. He runs into several ladies, including Cinderella's fairy godmother who turns him into a carriage. When that enchantment ends, the prince makes up his mind, goes home, kisses his wife, and lo and behold, they're now both froggies. Though the ending is abrupt, there's so much funny stuff beforehand, it hardly matters. Johnson's artwork, just right for the tongue-in-cheek text, has a unique look. The pictures, featuring the pop-eyed prince and the grotesque harridans he meets up with, are marvelously droll, all dark hues and elongated shapes. A revisionist's delight. ~--Ilene Cooper
