Frog-inspired story is no princely tale

The Princess and the Fog
Lloyd Jones, with a contribution by Melinda Edwards and Linda Bayliss; illustrated by Lloyd Jones, Jessica Kingsley Publishers
ISBN: 978-1-84905-655-7
£10.99
48 pages

Picture books that are crafted to respond to a need identified or with a particular message in mind can vary as to their quality and their effectiveness. The Princess and the Fog is one such book. It is carefully written and beautifully illustrated, and is intended as a “helpful resource for parents and carers” to open up conversations with children about their low mood and to encourage them to speak with a safe adult about how they feel.

The title of the book is arresting and winning, playing beautifully on the child and parent’s ear in its echoing the classic Princess and the Frog. In this story, the fog is every bit as disappointing as the frog in the original tale, but does not offer magical rescue through metamorphosis into a handsome prince at the end.

The author is rightly, it seems to me, offering something more mundane as a solution: first, inviting us to see not only the world from the princess’s increasingly foggy point of view; but second, also taking us inside the minds of her parents, the increasingly worried King and Queen and her friend, who persists in asking her to play. It is the friend who offers her a listening ear, and I love that he looks ordinarily geeky and could not be mistaken for an idealised handsome prince. He shows great sensitivity, and stays with the princess while she talks about her fog. The early depictions of the princess’s slow envelopment by dark, foggy clouds are beautifully rendered.