Once Upon A Curse (Tales of the Frog Princess)
Grade 4-6 - Princess Emma is anxious to marry Eadric, but first she must undo the family curse that threatens to turn her into an evil hag after her upcoming 16th birthday. Using the magical powers she is still learning to control, she visits the long-ago era when the spell was cast in an attempt to discover how it can be broken. Readers who enjoyed Baker'sThe Frog PrincessandDragon's Breathare the likeliest audience for this addition to the series as it seems to exist primarily to tie up loose ends. Even in this regard, though, it is disappointing. So much of the text is devoted to recapping the plots of the first two titles that there is not much room for a new story and the pace of this book is slowed considerably: " 'I'll put the spell in a ball like the ones we used when we fought King Beltran and turned his soldiers into frogs and mice,'" Emma calls to Eadric in the thick of battle. With such roundabout descriptions of the action, it's difficult to keep one's attention focused on the confrontation at hand. This title is necessary only in collections where the first two books are popular.- Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Public Library, NYCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.