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A review by simplyalexandra
Frogkisser! by Garth Nix
5.0
Full Review:
4.5 Stars - I highly recommend if you enjoy middle grade fantasy. This book is accessible to a wide audience!
When princess Anya is tasked with turning a frog back into a prince, she must set off on a quest to gather the ingredients to make more transmorgification lip balm, and to overthrow her evil step father Duke Rikard. Along the way Anya travels with a royal dog, a human-turned-newt, an otter-turned-weasel, and other colorful characters to save the fate of their world as they know it.
When I first started reading this I was not in the right mood to get fully into it. This book has a lovely slow pace, and is best enjoyed when you have time to be leisurely. When I picked it up again I really enjoyed it. Anya is a strong character who is both child-like and wise all at once, which is very endearing. I like that she has very realistic reactions to things, and is often so inexperienced, yet she succeeds in her tasks. All of the characters were interesting, the quest was complicated and simple all at once. I loved that the tasks often seemed impossible, but Anya came up with very simple solutions that made sense. I don't particularly like talking animals in my fantasy novels, but in this case I eventually got on board with the various talking animal characters. I liked how clever the world that Nix created was. How he took common elements from so many parts of fantasy, old fairy tales, etc. and turned them on their heads. Everything was so clever from the names of the otters, to the Heralds, to the flying carpets, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I love how all of these elements came together to create a compelling D&D-like quest with endearing characters. Though this is listed as YA it reminds me more of middle-grade as it is very wholesome and sweet. I think it would be lovely as a read-aloud family book for (I'd guess) children ages 7-12. If you enjoy magical stories, this one is very well done.
Right After Reading:
4.5 stars - it took me some time to get into the right mood for this one. It is a slow and colorful quest. It felt so much like D&D to me. While it feels simple it is also complex. I think this would be fantastic to read to older children as a bedtime story or family out loud reading. Very magical. Full review to come.
4.5 Stars - I highly recommend if you enjoy middle grade fantasy. This book is accessible to a wide audience!
When princess Anya is tasked with turning a frog back into a prince, she must set off on a quest to gather the ingredients to make more transmorgification lip balm, and to overthrow her evil step father Duke Rikard. Along the way Anya travels with a royal dog, a human-turned-newt, an otter-turned-weasel, and other colorful characters to save the fate of their world as they know it.
When I first started reading this I was not in the right mood to get fully into it. This book has a lovely slow pace, and is best enjoyed when you have time to be leisurely. When I picked it up again I really enjoyed it. Anya is a strong character who is both child-like and wise all at once, which is very endearing. I like that she has very realistic reactions to things, and is often so inexperienced, yet she succeeds in her tasks. All of the characters were interesting, the quest was complicated and simple all at once. I loved that the tasks often seemed impossible, but Anya came up with very simple solutions that made sense. I don't particularly like talking animals in my fantasy novels, but in this case I eventually got on board with the various talking animal characters. I liked how clever the world that Nix created was. How he took common elements from so many parts of fantasy, old fairy tales, etc. and turned them on their heads. Everything was so clever from the names of the otters, to the Heralds, to the flying carpets, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I love how all of these elements came together to create a compelling D&D-like quest with endearing characters. Though this is listed as YA it reminds me more of middle-grade as it is very wholesome and sweet. I think it would be lovely as a read-aloud family book for (I'd guess) children ages 7-12. If you enjoy magical stories, this one is very well done.
Right After Reading:
4.5 stars - it took me some time to get into the right mood for this one. It is a slow and colorful quest. It felt so much like D&D to me. While it feels simple it is also complex. I think this would be fantastic to read to older children as a bedtime story or family out loud reading. Very magical. Full review to come.