THE FROG DADDY

A dad recalls a childhood adventure.

While preparing for bed, young Estella jumps on Dad’s head, toy sword in hand. This introduction foreshadows an equally dramatic, goofy bedtime story drawn from her father Andy’s broad imagination. In this reimagined fairy tale, young Andy is walking through Central Park on a field trip when he stumbles upon a man cloaked in wizard gear. Skeptical about the so-called wizard’s abilities, Andy teases him and, to his surprise, is swiftly transformed into a frog. The wizard then tasks Frog Andy with a quest to regain human form, and that’s where things rev up—the wizard demands a particular basketball player’s signature, a lion’s tail hair, and homemade matzo ball soup. Accompanied by a fox whom the wizard has turned into a pug, the amphibious boy must scour the city, from Madison Square Garden to the Bronx Zoo, to a pale-skinned young girl’s apartment hallway, and finally back to a classic city hot dog cart. Though the human re-transformation doesn’t demand a kiss, as in the original, Andy does learn an important lesson about being well mannered. Like the previous volume, the narrative is speckled with digressions and gags, and the result is an adorable amble in the park. Crandall’s illustrations hit many bright, happy notes, reveling in a classically cartoonish Big Apple. Andy and Estella are olive-skinned and dark-haired; other players are diverse.

A silly, sweet bedtime tale brought to life.