Reviews for The tale of the valiant ninja frog
Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Imaginative siblings help their dad make up a bedtime story. Dad, Jamie, and Abby (who all appear to be people of color, with brown skin and black curly hair) go camping, and the children ask for a story while illustrations show them toasting marshmallows around a fire. Dad is game and asks them for a cast of characters, which comes to include the Prince, the Princess, the Witch, the Frog (Abby’s suggestion, inspired by her plush toy frog), and “a MONSTER.” Once he gets rolling, Dad’s storytelling technique largely consists of leaving gaps for Jamie and Abby to fill in or adjusting his telling to accommodate the children’s interjections and ideas. The humorous story they build together is enhanced by illustrations that capitalize on comical facial expressions, zoomed-in perspectives, and slapstick scenarios involving an ogre. Abby is determined to make the Frog a hero in the tale despite Jamie’s commentary to the contrary, which adds some realistic, mild sibling rivalry to the frame story that surrounds the fantastic tale the family builds together. A happily-ever-after ending for the tale is echoed by a peaceful goodnight by the campfire with an anticipatory look at what story could come next. A valiantly funny story within a story to share. (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.
This follow-up to the author’s The Prince and the Witch and the Thief and the Bears (2019) once again shows a father completely at the mercy of his kids’ demands as to what should be included in the story he’s telling, with hilarious results. This time, the book’s framing device is the family camping out. The father starts a campfire story, with his son and daughter demanding that it should have a prince, a princess, a monster, bears, and a frog. The father starts a basic ogre-terrorizes-town story, with the keys to the kingdom hidden in the ogre’s castle. At the kids’ insistence, a host of other characters appear, including a frog who morphs from the daughter’s toy frog into a tiny frog in the witch’s pocket into the save-the-day ninja frog. The boy and girl themselves appear as the brave and resourceful prince and princess. Tuya’s illustrations have the bright, comic fairyland look of Shrek, complementing this fun fairy-tale riff, an effective model of collaborative storytelling.
