|
| Water Song: A Retelling of "The Frog Prince" (Once Upon a Time) | 
 enlarge | Author: Suzanne Weyn
Creator: Mahlon F. Craft
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Category: Book
List Price: $5.99
Buy New: $2.58
You Save: $3.41 (57%)
New (23) Used (10) from $2.58
Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 79318
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 4.2 x 0.6
ISBN: 1416940138
EAN: 9781416940135
ASIN: 1416940138
Publication Date: October 24, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: GREAT BUY!Brand New From US Distributor! WE ARE A 5 STAR SELLER with OVER 3,500,000 BOOKS SOLD!!! OVER ~ 600,000 FEEDBACKS ~ POSTED!!!
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
"ONCE UPON A TIME"IS TIMELESS Young, beautiful, and wealthy, Emma Pennington is accustomed to a very comfortable life. Although war rages abroad, she hardly feels its effect. She and her mother travel from their home in Britain to the family estate in Belgium, never imagining that the war could reach them there. But it does. Soon Emma finds herself stranded in a war-torn country, utterly alone. Enemy troops fight to take over her estate, leaving her with no way to reach her family, and no way out. With all of her attention focused on survival and escape, Emma hardly expects to find love. But the war will teach her that life is unpredictable, people aren't always what they seem, and magic is lurking everywhere.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 From the first page, the ripple of words will pull you under, and not release you until the last page has been turned October 14, 2006
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
Emma Pennington has been accustomed to a wealthy, comfortable life for as long as she can remember. She has never had to succumb to suffering, or been forced to work for the luxuries she has been shrouded in. And, while war is raging all around her, in the seclusion of her parents glamorous estate, she feels no different, give or take the sound of a gunshot or bomb exploding here or there. But then things change drastically. Young, beautiful Emma, and her mother travel from their home in Britain to their palatial estate in Belgium where they feel they will be safer, and will have less to worry about. However, upon their arrival, they see that the war is raging even closer in proximity in this location, and that they have placed themselves in grave danger by traveling this distance. Now, as enemy troops have claimed the estate as their own, Emma finds herself alone, with no family there to reach out to, and no way to escape from harms way. Now, the once material-obsessed Emma must focus her attention on saving herself from the danger that surrounds her in every nook and cranny, and that threatens her very existence, in an attempt to keep herself alive long enough to give her father, who is still faraway in Britain, the truth about what has happened to their beloved estate, and their once tight-knit family; while at the same time try and come to terms with the feelings of love she is experiencing towards Jack, a very peculiar man who is posing as her husband, in an attempt to keep the enemy at arms length.
I have never read the fairytale THE FROG PRINCE, so I feel that I truly have nothing to compare Suzanne Weyn's WATER SONG to. However, I can say that I enjoyed the tale very much, though I must admit that I found it to embrace more of a historical fiction genre in its writing than a fairytale genre. Emma is an enjoyable character, whose stubborn disposition, and oft-times overly-sensitive, emotional personality make her seem like a real person; while her interaction with Jack, is downright splendid. The two characters play off of one another perfectly, and the reader constantly finds themselves wishing that they would just admit their true feelings for one another. Suzanne Weyn has done an amazing job of combining a mixture of science fiction, historical fiction, and a slight bit of a fairytale together to create a magical combination that is utterly impossible to put down. From the first page, the ripple of words will pull you under, and not release you until the last page has been turned.
Erika Sorocco
Freelance Reviewer
 Disappointing...and silly, too. January 14, 2007
6 out of 9 found this review helpful
I've read nearly all the books in the Once Upon A Time series, and I was looking forward to this one. However, it was quite a disappointing read. I didn't mind the beginning of the story; it started out okay, although it did seems to skip over a lot of things that might have made it easier to connect with the heroine. For example, her mother is killed by German bombs (this is set in WWI) while she is sitting next to her. We only hear about this, but don't actually experience it with Emma, the heroine. Not that I have a need to experience gruesome deaths, but I felt like the author just didn't feel like spending a lot of time developing Emma's character or her backstory. Suzanne Weyn doesn't spend a lot of time on the hero, Jack, either. She does take the time to explain that he knows some Native American/Creole healing potions that he learned from his mother. He apparently also learned how to "talk" to his mother's spirit, and maybe to even transport his spirit to other places...? What?? I think this is Weyn's way of introducing the "frog prince" connection; Jack is from the bayou and is a terrific swimmer, and his mother repeatedly "speaks" to him in dreams and tells him how he is a prince, and how he knows the water, etc. Emma and a minor character are both rescued from water by Jack while both are unconscious; this adds to the mystery -- "Who was that frog-man that rescued me?" Emma even asks Jack if he has magic to turn himself into a frog. This question, while German bombs explode outside, is just a bit of a silly paradox between fantasy and reality. I really think that Weyn makes the frog connection within the first part of the book. There are enough water references. She doesn't need to go so far as to have Jack's frogginess brought up nearly every page. Okay!! We get it!! Jack is the frog prince!! It just becomes silly, and almost seems like she is trying too hard. She didn't try too hard to create the relationship between the hero and heroine, though. They don't really have a relationship. I was surprised and bored when they decided they were in love with each other. They don't really have much connection at all, and therefore I didn't feel like I had any connection to them either. Weyn tries to make this a psychological fairy tale as many of the others in the series are. Themes of finding yourself, loving who you are, discovering truth, etc. are part of many of these books, but Weyn's efforts fall flat. She does try near the end of the story to have Jack realize that he is a great man, because Emma loves him, but that he was great all along, and it took her love to make him realize what was already true. Weyn's rendition of this self-discovery is even more awkward than the sentence I just wrote. What a shame. I was hoping it would be as good as some of the others in the series, but it wasn't. The best one so far in the series: The Storyteller's Daughter, by a LANDSLIDE. Read it and be satisfied.
 More historical fiction instead of fairy tale fantasy October 25, 2006
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
"Water Song" is the latest release in the "Once Upon a Time" series, in which current teen authors take different fairy tales and put their own spin on each story.
"Water Song" is based on the "Frog Prince" fairy tale, which, in all fairness, doesn't have a lot to go on. Kudos to the author for taking such a short (and relatively conflict-free) story and fleshing it out into a retelling set in World War I Europe.
The story follows Emma, a young British teenager who finds herself on the WWI battlefront, unable to leave for home and alone in the world after her mother is killed in a recent bombing. She encounters Jack, a wounded American soldier, and cares for him at her family's estate while enemy soldiers take over and occupy her home.
As a historical fiction book, I thought this was great. As a fairy tale retelling, I thought it was lacking a little. It's obvious who the princess and the frog are, but what's not so obvious is the use of magic (other than some events the characters can't explain and healing ability). In many respects, the author could have taken the use of magic out of the book and it would have been a stronger story. Another element that seemed poorly used was the secret of the locket. We spend most of the story wondering what exactly makes the locket special. When we finally do find out, it's rather ordinary and anti-climactic, and it's introduced quickly and discarded even faster.
As Emma and Jack are both on the same side of the war, it's easy to view the German soldiers occupying her home as "the enemy." Granted, the books in this series are supposed to be quick reads. But some characterization on the part of the Germans - showing their human side, not the sterotypical bad guy way they're drawn - would have made them more interesting to read about.
If you're new to the series, start with Suzanne Weyn's other book "Night Dance" or any of the Dokey books. Those are more solid fairy tale retellings.
As far as "Water Song" goes - promising premise, but incomplete delivery.
Not So Great: SOME SPOILERS November 13, 2006
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I quite like the "Once Upon a Time" series. They are usually fresh and original. Water Song is the 10th in this series. Some of the books are better than others and so I bought Water Song with some trepidation. I perhaps should have been more cautious. While there are some original, creative elements in the book, such as turning the "frog" into an American soldier from Louisiana, and the golden ball into a locket, the plot itself is almost painful to read. The first time the American soldier sees the heroine Emma he wants her love (pg. 33). Emma is continually frustrated with him (with good reason) and yet somehow this translates into her loving him. They seem to have a continually rocky relationship while falling in love with each other more and more. I do realize this is a fairy tale but the plot is highly unlikely. Call me a pessimist but the "love at first sight" aspect of the story is cliche and unrealistic.
Best Once Upon a Time book YET!!! June 14, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
So I wasn't expecting much because frankly I wasn't into Weyn's retelling of The Night Dance, but Water Song was SO GOOD! I loved it. I read up til page 15 the first day and the next night I finished the whole thing. Even after I finished it at 4AM I couldn't go to sleep. The historical bits were pretty accurate (from what I can remember from U.S. History class) and I was cheering the characters on every step of the way. High recommended to... well if you're reading this then you're already sucked in.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
