Title: The Frog Prince
Author: Mike Klaassen
Author: Mike Klaassen
Genre: Fairy Tale Retelling / Historical Romance
Year Published: 2016
Number of Pages: 114 pages
Date Read: 9/24/2017
Publisher: Bookbaby
Source: eARC (Book Unleashed)
Content Rating: Ages 8+ (Some Intense Moments and Rude Behavior)
Buy or Add on: Amazon // Goodreads
Source: eARC (Book Unleashed)
Content Rating: Ages 8+ (Some Intense Moments and Rude Behavior)
Buy or Add on: Amazon // Goodreads
I
would like to thank Book Unleashed and Bookbaby for
providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Now, I have been reading the Brothers Grimm fairy tale classics for
many years and I have seen many retellings of their fairy tales such as “Rumpelstiltskin,” “The Bremen Town
Musicians” and “Snow White.” But, I
had never read a retelling of the “Frog
Prince” before and when Book Unleashed gave me a free copy of Mike Klaassen’s retelling of “The Frog Prince,” I just had to check
this book out and man was I blown away by this interesting retelling of the
classic story!
Young Prince Gerit was out
playing around the bog near his father’s kingdom when suddenly, he falls into
the bog and could not get out of the water.
Then, an old woman named Wibke came along and noticed that Gerit was in
trouble. Gerit desperately asks the old
woman to help him out of the water and Wibke promised that she will help the
prince if the prince promises her that he will take care of her for the rest of
his life. Of course, Gerit does not want
to take care of the woman, but he agreed to the bargain anyway and Wibke helped
Gerit out of the water. Then Gerit tried
to break his promise to Wibke by running off to the castle, until Wibke
transformed Gerit into a frog and she states that the only way that Gerit will
turn back into a prince again is if a princess comes along and kisses him three
times. So, Gerit goes on a long journey
to find a princess who is willing to kiss him three times and Gerit stumbles
upon a kingdom that is ruled by his father, King Egon’s enemy, King Torsten and
he finds out that King Torsten has a daughter named Anneliese. Now, Gerit tries to make an effort to get
Princess Anneliese to kiss him three times or else, he will remain a frog
forever!
Wow…just wow…I never would have
thought that I would read a retelling of “The
Frog Prince” with so much energy and emotion! Mike
Klaassen has done a fantastic job at retelling this classic fairy tale as
he gives a more contemporary and in-depth spin to the story. I loved the fact that the story is told from
the point of view of the Frog Prince himself and this made Gerit into an
extremely interesting character as we get to see how he was like before he
turned into a frog and we also get to see his struggles in becoming a frog and
trying to find a way to change himself back into a prince. I also loved the character development that
both Prince Gerit and Anneliese go through as they both started off as royal
brats who only thought about themselves and believe that they will get anything
they want because they are of royalty.
However, the events of the story caused the characters to grow and
understand the harsh situations that they are thrown into, such as the fact
that their kingdoms are being involved in a war and how both Gerit and
Anneliese may have to sacrifice their happiness in order to save their
kingdoms. I loved the way that Mike Klaassen developed Gerit and
Anneliese’s relationship with each other as I enjoyed the interactions that the
two had with each other, such as playing ball together and talking about their
favorite books. I also felt that Gerit
and Anneliese’s growing relationship with each other was developed in a natural
way and it felt more real than in the original fairy tale as the two did not
love each other at first, but started developing feelings for each other over
the course of the story, which I found to be pretty refreshing!
The only problem I had with this
book was that the ending felt a bit rushed.
It felt like they wanted to quickly skip to the ending of the original
fairy tale and did not developed the resolution of the story a bit further to
see how the actions of the characters would affect the overall scheme of the
story.
Overall, “The
Frog Prince” is a brilliant retelling of the original fairy tale and anyone
who is a huge fan of the “Frog Prince”
will easily enjoy this book!
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