Heather McLeod

Summary: This book was about a little girl who finds a talking frog that wants a kiss from her so he can turn back into a prince. She refuses because being a prince is all responsibility and no play. They end up playing together and the frog likes that instead, so when she does kiss him they become friends and play a lot.
Review: This book was a delightful read and I fell in love with the illustrations. This book touches a little on the subject of kids should be kids instead of taking the world so seriously at such a young age.… (mere)

Great read. Good story about friendship and love. Pictures in the book are full of color and relate well to the story. Ella is a girl who has a frog as a friend. The frog starts asking her if she will kiss him because if she does the frog will turn into a prince. Before the frog and Ella became friends the frog was a real boy that got turned into a frog by is fairy godmother. The fairy godmother told him that the only way he can turn back into a human is if he was kissed by a true friend. Will Ella kiss the frog? Read the book to find out.… (mere)

When Ella finds a frog outside that asks her to kiss him (he’ll transform into a prince of course), she decides to keep him as a pet instead. Unimpressed by his offer of what sounds like a dreadfully boring future life as royalty, she instead introduces him to the joys of childhood – playing games and splashing in water mainly. When a member of his court appears to take him home, he remains unconvinced if he even WANTS to be turned back into a prince. Getting to play is so much more fun than endless lessons in etiquette and foreign languages.

Delicately illustrated in watercolor and pencil by Brooke Kerrigan, Heather McLeod’s untraditional interpretation of The Frog Prince is charming and rings true to children who spend their days exploring and delighting in the world around them. Who wants to be forced to wear fancy dresses that you can never get dirty every day?

This is a delightful tale with just enough repetition in the beginning to draw children deeply into the story. The soft illustrations are so delectable, the main character even looks a lot like my own oldest daughter, which really pulled on my heartstrings as I was reading this book to my children. They were completely won over by this story and have asked for several repeat readings.

Now, I’m likely going to sound like a fuddy duddy here, but I need to add in a disclaimer for parents who stringently screen their picture book selections. Ella, the main character is a very young girl – around grade 3 or 4. While she ends up kissing the frog prince out of friendship, because he asked her, and to turn him back into a prince, I wanted to note that she is a very young girl who kisses a prince to turn him into a boy. Personally, we don’t want to encourage our girls to kiss boys they don’t intend to marry – whether he asked them on a ‘friends-only’ basis or not.

Reviewed at quiverfullfamily.com… (mere)