With a wink of her eye and a split-page text, Emily Gravett uses every surface of this “Frog Prince” parody to challenge readers’ imaginations. The opening double-page spreads depict an imaginative, albeit destructive, frog who flippantly tears pages from the spells book to create his fantasies. Suddenly he realizes that, with the proper spell, he can morph from frog to prince. Piecing together torn pages, he transforms into unusual creatures— a fabbit, a snewt—until he creates the necessary spell and shape-shifts into a handsome (but naked) prince. The beautiful princess’s kiss precipitates a surprise ending, explained on the back endpapers. lmp

Originally published by Macmillan Children’s Books Great Britain, in 2008.