Mike Klaassen has updated the classic fairy tale The Frog Prince. He has rewritten this story of the spoiled child to make the characters more believable to the modern day reader, both the child and the parent reading this story.
He has rewritten the dialogue to sound like the pre-teenager in every one's household. With all the empathy of the average self centered child, who feels they should be treated like a prince or princess, and have everything handed to them on a silver platter. For the teenager who says indignantly to their parent, 'I have to have that, everyone else has one.' So when this young prince looses his three pronged gig, a frog or fish hunting tool, and gets caught in some quick sand, you would think he would be more appreciative of the old woman who rescues him. But showing us how being spoiled and prejudice can make a person small minded, the prince ends up cursed to live out his life as a frog.
This is, as we know, his fate unless a girl will kiss him three times. Enter the beautiful young princess who has behavior issues of her own. Now the frog prince must convince this intolerant, overindulged princess to kiss a repulsive creature, namely himself.
Klaassen has nothing to change the actual story line of the original fairy tale, so we all know how this story goes. What he has done is update the dialogue and speech patterns to represent the everyday attitude and demeanor of the modern pre-teen. It is an enjoyable read, and maybe today's kids will enjoy it because it feels more relatable, but the author did not make the moral of the story anymore clear than it has always been.
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