Lilli-Pilli the Frog Princess

Vashti Farrer (author)

Owen Swan (illustrator)

ISBN: 978174169202

Genres: humour; picture book

Issues: differences, friendship

Lilli-Pilli the Frog Princess has a problem. Her parents want her to be something impossible – an ordinary princess. How is that possible when her legs are made to leap and hop?

Lilli-Pilli is destined to marry a prince but who will want a princess with such long, springy legs? At the Grand Ball held in her honour, it seems that the star of the evening may well find herself all alone. Until, that is, the arrival of Prince Antirrhum. Lilli-Pilli finally meets her very unconventional match – much to the delight of her family.

A delightful, slightly subversive fairytale that challenges the limitations of a society that demands suppression of individuality in order to achieve conventionality, Lilli-Pilli the Frog Princess will appeal to many youngsters as well as the adults reading to them. Vashti Ferrer's story is, perhaps, slightly moralistic and the resolution is a little contrived but gifted readers can be encouraged to create their own endings and speculate about the longer-term happenings in the Frog Princess' life.

Owen Swan's delicate illustrations are cleverly integrated with the text and the colours will certainly appeal to girls, if not to many boys. It would have been nice to see a bit of eccentricity in the use of colour – perhaps making the Frog Princess and her prince much brighter than the blander colours of those around her. The story is, nonetheless, a fresh take on an old idea and a narrative for all those who feel different and uncomfortable in themselves.