The Frog Bride

In this Russian version of the familiar romance, the frog is the beautiful sorceress Vasilissa, grand-daughter of Baba Yaga and daughter of an Enchanter who has transformed her in fear of her growing powers. Her husband is the youngest son of a domineering King who has ordered him to marry the frog in obedience to destiny. This rather distressed looking youth discovers his wife’s identity when she uses her magic to outdo her sisters-in-law, but he loses her when he tries to rescue her by burning her discarded frog-skin. His remorseful quest to regain her trust takes him on a long trek to the frozen north and the chicken-legged hut of Baba Yaga.

Antonia Barber, award-winning author of The Mousehole Cat and of two collections of folklore, presents this fascinatingly fresh conformation of familiar themes in language which is straightforward but compelling. Children who have met the Grimms’ Frog Prince, or the skin-shedding kelpies from Celtic lore, or the cannibalistic incarnation of Baba Yaga rather than the stern baboushka depicted here, may find that these resonances open doors between different worlds of story. The clear and highly readable text is entirely embedded in Virginia Lee’s richly detailed and eventful visual realm; her oil and pastel palaces and wildernesses are enchanting environments, and the young couple are shown as touchingly vulnerable, even when they at last belong to the same species.