In Once Upon a Curse by E.D. Baker, the third book in the series begun with The Frog Princess, Emma is about to turn 16 and therefore will be subject to a curse placed on her family generations back. Attempting to undo the curse, she travels back in time to the day the curse was first placed on Princess Hazel, and though Emma fails in one mission, she succeeds in another. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

In this entertaining sequel to The Frog Princess and Dragon's Breath, Princess Emma tries to remove a fairy+s curse on her family. With the help of Prince Eadric and her animal friends, Emma travels through time and tries to unravel the curse. Emma is a strong heroine, and her sixteenth-birthday deadline adds a sense of immediacy. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.

Gr 4-6-Princess Emma discovers that turning 16 will neither be sweet nor will it likely involve a kiss unless she can reverse a curse that was placed on her ancestor, Hazel, by a disgruntled fairy centuries ago. As a result of the curse, all female descendants in her bloodline are doomed to a nasty personality, ugly face, and untimely old age should they touch a flower after reaching their 16th birthday. Joined by her fianc?, Prince Eadric, and her bat companion, Li'l, Emma travels back in time in an attempt to break the family curse by circumventing certain preceding events. While she searches for answers, Emma staves off griffins, harpies, and a dragon from attacking the kingdom. E.D. Baker's third installment (Bloomsbury, 2004) in The Tales of the Frog Princess trilogy is narrated by actress Katherine Kellgren whose sonorous voice adds an element of magic to the chants and spells in the book. Kellgren's spellbinding performance makes up for the book's occasional logical inconsistency and excessive digression into subplots. For instance, the romance between Emma's bat friend and Prince Garrid could have been omitted. The only voice discrepancy is the slight variation in Prince Garrid's voice which begins as a quaint foreign accent and later transforms into a trite Transylvanian accent. While this episode can be followed without having read the previous two books (The Frog Princess and Dragon's Breath), some nuances and the relationships between the characters will be more understandable to those familiar with the previous titles. Students who enjoyed J.T. Petty's Clemency Pogue: Fairy Killer (S & S, 2005) and Gail Carson Levine's classic Ella Enchanted (HarperTrophy, 1997) will find this title a delight. This humorous and satisfying conclusion to the trilogy should be purchased by school and public libraries already circulating the previous two books.-Ann Crewdson, King County Library System, Issaquah, WA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.