Once Upon a Toad (Heather Vogel Frederick)

Once Upon a Toad
Heather Vogel Frederick
Simon and Schuster
Fiction, MG Fantasy
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: Once upon a time, in the far-away land of Houston, there lived a girl who hated her stepsister very much. Cat Starr was okay with her parents' divorce, even when her dad remarried. Her stepmother Isabel (or Iz) is actually pretty neat, and of course Cat adores her four-year-old half-brother Geoffrey. The problem is Olivia, Iz's daughter. Olivia may be tall, pretty, and popular, but she is an absolute monster. Even though Cat's mother is a real life astronaut, currently on a three-month mission to the space station, and even though Cat's a good enough musician to play with the Houston Youth Symphony, somehow Cat's still a short and worthless nobody when she has to stay with Dad and Iz in Portland, Oregon. Finally, when Olivia's bullying goes too far, Cat is forced to call for help... a call answered by her eccentric Great-Aunt Abyssinia, who lives in a cluttered RV crisscrossing the country.
Cat had no idea that Aby wasn't just a strange old woman, but a fairy godmother... and an "occupationally challenged" fairy godmother, at that. She had no idea that Aby specializes not in fixing problems but in "life lessons". And she had no idea that Aby's idea of a "life lesson" would come straight from, well, a fairy tale.
The next morning, Cat wakes up to find toads falling from her mouth whenever she speaks - and Olivia spews flowers and glimmering diamonds. Things only get worse when word gets out and the wrong people take notice. Before, Cat was certain Olivia and her had nothing in common. They soon realize they both have a lot more trouble than they know how to handle... and a lot more to lose if they can't work together to find a cure.

REVIEW: Once Upon a Toad is pretty much just what it looks like, a modern and somewhat humorous retelling of the "Diamonds and Toads" fairy tale. Cat's not a pretty princess with a wicked stepmother, but an ordinary girl with a pretty decent stepmother. She's relentlessly picked on by Olivia, who is actually something of a bully and even turns the whole school against her, though neither Iz nor her father want to see it. (To their credit, when they do realize what's going on, they do their best to set things right, but by then the problem has gone too far... and fairy magic has gotten involved.) It takes Cat a little too long to work out the connection between Aby and the toad/diamond curse; this is apparently a world where nobody except fairy godmothers reads fairy tales anymore. Once word gets out, it doesn't take long for the wrong people to become interested in a girl who generates gem-quality diamonds from thin air whenever she speaks, forcing Cat and Olivia to desperate acts and a cross-country flight in search of the elusive Great-Aunt Aby (who may or may not be able to set things right with her unreliable magic). Sometimes the characters seem a bit too stubborn or obtuse about developments, but Cat has a decent, if not misstep-free, adventure that changes her perspective on the relationship, and there's plenty of fun and danger along the way. Considering the target audience, it's a decently entertaining story.

You Might Also Enjoy:
Granted (John David Anderson) - My Review
Jennifer Murdley's Toad (Bruce Coville) - My Review
Ella Enchanted (Gail Carson Levine) - My Review