The princess and the frogs by Veronica Bartles

Ill. by Sara Palacios. Balzer and Bray, 2017. ISBN 9780062365910
Princess Cassandra had everything she could possibly want - hundreds of dresses, thousands of books and servants to bring her anything she wanted. She should have been the happiest princess in the world. But there was one thing she didn't have - she was lonely playing by herself and desperately wanted a best friend. In particular, she wanted a pet - one that would match her best dress, swim and jump and play all day and at night sit on her pillow and sing to her. So the Royal Pet Handler set off on a quest to find the perfect pet, but nothing was quite right. The mouse was too squeaky, the kitten refused to swim, the hippo wouldn't jump and none of them were green. The task seemed impossible until one day the Royal Pet Handler arrived with a frog. It seemed just perfect. It was able to swim, jump and play, AND it was green. But when Princess Cassandra put it on her pillow and kissed it goodnight, it turned into a prince!
"Princes aren't pets," she declared and banished it to the royal kitchens. So the Pet Handler went in search of another frog and the same thing happened. Again and again and again, until there were princes everywhere. Then one day, the princess found her own frog but the same thing happened, except this time the prince wanted to stay a frog. Will she ever get the perfect pet?
This is an hilarious take on the traditional Princess and the Frog story made even more so by the terrific pictures from Palacios who brings the characters to life through their facial expressions. Who would have thought there were so many different frogs?
A playful bedtime read that might make little ones think twice about kissing things goodnight!
Barbara Braxton