Baker, E.D.

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Baker, E.D.

Personal

Female; children: three.

Addresses

Home—MD. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Writer. Has worked variously as a teacher, parrot caretaker, and member of Red Cross disaster team.

Writings

"TALES OF THE FROG PRINCESS" SERIES; NOVELS FOR CHILDREN

The Frog Princess, Bloomsbury (New York, NY), 2002.

Dragon's Breath, Bloomsbury (New York, NY), 2003.

Once upon a Curse, Bloomsbury (New York, NY), 2004.

No Place for Magic, Bloomsbury (New York, NY), 2006.

The Salamander Spell, Bloomsbury (New York, NY), 2007.

Adaptations

The Frog Princess, Dragon's Breath, and Once upon a Curse have been adapted as audiobooks. The Frog Princess has been optioned for an animated film.

Sidelights

In her "Tales of the Frog Princess" series of novels for young people, E.D. Baker uses fairy-tale conventions in new ways. Featuring curses, good and evil witches, and humans who turn into frogs and back again, the humorous series details the adventures of smart, resourceful Princess Emeralda ("Emma" for short) and Prince Eadric, the brave and good, if sometimes undisciplined, young man Emma loves.

In the first entry, The Frog Princess, Emma is fourteen years old and depressed about the arranged marriage that awaits her. Encountering a talking frog one day, she agrees to kiss it in order to lift a curse and enable the frog to become Eadric once again. Instead of turning the frog into a prince, however, her kiss turns the princess into a frog. Because the witch who cast the spell is the only one who can undo it and restore their human bodies, Emma and Eadric go on a journey to find her. Along the way they have many comic problems—including Emma's difficulty adjusting to her frog form—and eventually become attracted to each other.

Some critics found The Frog Princess amusing and predicted it would appeal to youthful readers. "Baker reworks the traditional story into high-spirited romantic comedy," noted a Kirkus Reviews contributor. In Publishers Weekly a reviewer praised Baker's novel for containing "peppy dialogue" and "comical scenes."

The sequel, Dragon's Breath, finds Emma learning witchcraft. Now she is trying to help her Aunt Grassina, a good and powerful witch who protects the family's realm, reverse a spell that turned Grassina's lover, Haywood, into an otter. Dragon's breath is one of the ingredients they must acquire. Meanwhile, Emma is having a problem: her sneezes cause her and Eadric to shape-shift between human and frog. Dragon's Breath is "as tasty as its prequel," remarked John Peters in School Library Journal, the critic adding that it has "several ingenious twists." A Kirkus Reviews critic dubbed it "a rollicking sequel" that "does not disappoint."

In Once upon a Curse, Emma is about to turn sixteen but dreads it: a curse placed on her family long ago will cause her to turn ugly and wicked when she reaches that age. Joined by Eadric and a friendly bat, she travels back through time in an attempt to break the spell. On their trip, they meet many bizarre characters. Several reviewers commented on the story's comedic elements, although School Library Journal contributor Miriam Lang Budin questioned the time spent recounting the events of the previous stories. Because of that, "the pace of [Once upon a Curse] … is slowed considerably," Budin wrote. Emma and Eadric are married in the series' fourth installment, No Place for Magic.

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2002, review of The Frog Princess, p. 1526; November 1, 2003, review of Dragon's Breath, p. 1309; September 1, 2006, review of No Place for Magic, p. 900.

Publishers Weekly, November 18, 2002, review of The Frog Princess, p. 61.

School Library Journal, December, 2003, John Peters, review of Dragon's Breath, p. 144; January, 2005, Miriam Lang Budin, review of Once upon a Curse, p. 122.

Teacher Librarian, February, 2007, Betty Winslow, "Frog and Princess Stories," p. 46.