The Sweetest Kiss

by Maranke Rinck, Martijin Van Der Linden (Illustrations)

The prince desires a kiss. A sweet kiss from a sweet girl.  And today is the day.  The palace is filled with girls, the prince can choose any one.  The hummingbird, the hippo or the black cat.  Who is the sweetest of them all?

Genres: Picture Books

32 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2007

Reviews

[sheila · Rating 1 out of 5]

art was beautiful but the only harem i'll like is a reverse harem centered around me

[Kristin · Rating 1 out of 5]

creepy. weird. chauvinist.
a twisted retelling of the frog prince...

[Betty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Loved the illustrations. The story was weird, sexist and unsatisfying.

[Gail LaVoie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was the worst one I've read so far. The illustrations are the only reason it received even one star from me. The pictures are beautifully drawn with all manner of animals wearing really unique colorful outfits. They are more realistic looking than cartoonish which is nice. However; the story is really odd not suitable in my opinion for the age of reader in which this is geared to. The beginning of the story is alright and seems like a twist on the frog prince but, by the end it is obvious that it is nothing like the Frog Prince we are all familiar with. The story goes that Prince, who happens to be a frog, is looking for a princess. He is told that many have come to meet him and he decides to interview all of the ladies and the one he wants to marry will be awarded with a kiss. Then you quickly realize that all of the "ladies" are of different species. In the end the frog prince cannot decide who he likes so he kisses them all and they all turn into frogs and he then has a harem! All of the females just blindly go into the interview and then get completely changed to please a prince. That is NOT a good message to be sending children, especially young girls.

[Karly Winters · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have a major issue with this book, which is why I would not recommend it to children. The problem I have with this book is the fact that at the end, the prince decides doesn't want one princess, but all of them. And he gets all of them. At the beginning of the book, the Frog Prince is told by a crystal ball that he is to pick the sweetest princess and kiss her. Then they will live happily ever after. Then throughout the book, you go from different animal princess to different animal princess. One is the shallow hummingbird who only pretends to be nice. In actuality, it's quite the opposite. But, I will say that the book has a lot of beautifully drawn/painted pictures with richly used colors. The story had a lot of potential, but this is not one that I would read to my children ever.

[Alice · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of the worst children's books I've seen. I chose it because of the beautiful illustrations but the story is horrible. It's basically "The Bachelor" but at the end the guy gets to keep all the girls in a weird harem and they all change to be like him.

[A.V. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautiful, hilarious illustrations of animals wearing jewelry but then everything falls apart on the last page. I would've been fine with the funny transformations if the author hadn't thrown a bit of their patriarchal BS into the narrative's ending.

Way to ruin a perfectly good children's book.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

The artwork is fascinating, much more than the story.

[Blake Hobbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

The illustrations in this book are the best part! The paintings looked like real photographs.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story's a little too bizarre for me, but the nifty illustrations earn it an extra star.