The Frog Princess: A Tlingit Legend From Alaska Book

The beautiful daughter of a powerful headman refuses every offer of marriage that she receives in this retelling of a Tlingit legend from Alaska, going so far as to tell one suitor that she would sooner marry a frog from the local lake. When a frog prince comes calling, she accompanies him to his underwater home, and is happy for a time. Her grieving father however, learning of her location, threatens war against the frogs if she is not returned, and she finds herself once again amongst her human kin. Although her parents do everything they can to make her happy, she longs for her frog husband and children, and one day she disappears, along with all of the frogs in the lake...

According to the author's note, the narrative in The Frog Princess: a Tlingit Legend from Alaska is adapted from "The Girl Who Was Taken by the Frog People," found in John E. Smelcer's A Cycle of Myths: Indian Myths from Southeast Alaska . The story is fascinating, and reminds me of many such transformation tales the world over, in which a human is absorbed into an animal tribe or community of some kind. The accompanying artwork from Rosanne Litzinger, who also illustrated Koko Nishizuka's The Beckoning Cat: Based on a Japanese Folktale , has a stylized quality that is quite interesting. Recommended to young folklore enthusiasts, and to readers interested in the Tlingit culture and stories.