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They
say “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” but in this case, you should. Jonny
Duddle’s wonderful design says it all - a valiant but incompetent looking frog
wields a ray gun while behind him alien bipods blast a fairy-tale castle to
smithereens. Onlookers include a spoiled princess, a bumbling wizard and an
army of alien invaders.
It
seems authors will never tire of re-inventing traditional fairy-tales, and this
re-telling of “The Princess and the Frog” is particularly zany and humorous.
Frog,
armed with nothing more than a pair of Catastrophe Pants and his trusty stick,
Basil Rathbone, is the highlight of the book. Somewhat reminiscent of Kenneth
Graham’s Toad (a distant relative?), Frog is an unlikely hero - naive,
self-assured and filled with his own sense of “princely-ness”. He stumbles
through the book in search of adventure and his kingdom, encountering hilarious
situations along the way. He assumes command of a “royal steed” (a sheep) which
he names Sheriff Explosion, but the stubborn animal refuses to carry Prince
Frog and has to be carried to the castle himself! What awaits there is a
classic dénouement featuring a full on war with aliens. “I’m opening a shop
that sells crushing defeat,” announces Frog, “and you’re my first customers!”
The
language is as wacky as the characters and the plot. A dungeon is described as
smelling like “a cow eating rotting broccoli out of a sack full of old witch’s
farts.” This book will appeal to kids who like humour and silliness, though
some of the gags are clearly aimed at “Apocalypse Now” fans – “I love the smell
of burning life-forms in the morning.” It’s pantomime. And like all good panto
there’s something for everyone.
Review
first appeared in Inis
Magazine
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