A FROG NAMED WALDOR
Written by Jacqueline Rankine-Van Wassenhoven
Illustrated by Annie Zhang
2.5 stars
A Frog Named Waldor is a sweet children's picture book about a
little girl named Jennifer who loves to read, particularly books
about water fairies. Now, as I do love fairies and talking frogs
are quite irresistible, I was very intrigued by the premise of this
story. On a hot July afternoon, Jennifer takes her book to a
favourite spot by a pond near the village where she lives, to enjoy
some quiet reading time when she is quite surprised to make the
acquaintance of Waldor, the talking frog. They talk about water
fairies and through a magical twist of fate, Waldor, is just the
creature with the power to introduce Jennifer to some real,
charming water fairies that he knows!
I believe that author Jacqueline Rankine-Van Wassenhoven had
wonderful intentions for this book and there are some lovely
illustrations by Annie Zhang (my favourite being the one that
depicts Jennifer and Waldor dancing at a musical fairy jam amongst
the toadstools), however, the story ends very abruptly, seems
unfinished, and just doesn't quite hit the mark, although it is
clear that the author has a lot of love for the subject matter.
The book is only 12 pages long and of those 12 pages, there are
five adorable, colourful, full-page illustrations. That being said,
my niece and nephew who are 7-years-old, enjoyed it and thought
that Waldor was pretty cool, but they wanted to know more about
him. This story is more about Jennifer and the fairies than it is
about Waldor, so the title of the book is a tad misleading. They
also liked the idea of the magic bulrushes that allow Jennifer to
ride on the back of Mrs. Nightingale, who carried her home.
For some reason, this book is listed on Chapters.Indigo.ca as
costing $32.95 which is an extraordinarily high price to pay for a
12 page picture book. It also seems very overpriced at other online
booksellers sites. If those prices are correct, I cannot recommend
that you buy this book.