Once Upon a Toad

Written by Heather Vogel Frederick

Narrated by Tara Sands

Once upon a time, Cat Starr lived with her astronaut mom in Houston. But when her mother gets sent on a long-term mission, Cat has to move to a faraway land—her dad’s house, halfway across the country—and share a room with her real-life evil stepsister, Olivia. Just when Cat can’t take it anymore, Great Aunt Abyssinia comes to the rescue. And things go from bad to cursed.
The next morning, Cat opens her mouth and a toad hops out! What’s more, when Olivia speaks, diamonds and flowers appear. How unfair is that? Before you can say "happily ever after," the girls are on the run from jewel thieves and a government agency. Can Cat save the day—and get rid of all those toads?
This is an enchanting fractured fairy tale from acclaimed Mother-Daughter Book Club author Heather Vogel Frederick.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ideal Audiobooks
• Release date: Mar 8, 2016
• ISBN: 9781942907107

Heather Vogel Frederick

Heather Vogel Frederick is the award-winning author of the Mother-Daughter Book Club series, the Pumpkin Falls Mystery series, the Patience Goodspeed books, the Spy Mice series, and Once Upon a Toad. An avid fan of small towns like Pumpkin Falls, Heather and her husband live in New England, close to where Heather grew up. You can learn more about the author and her books at HeatherVogelFrederick.com.

Reviews for Once Upon a Toad

[the1butterfly · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

So a messed up fairy godmother gets a tale wrong, but the lesson works out anyway. To go with the traditional fairy tale, Cat should have spitted diamonds and flowers and Olivia should have spit out toads, but non-traditional not entirely competent fairy godmother puts a wrench in things. In line with the traditional tale, the sisters both learn a valuable lesson and find common ground (although Cat has the harder time throughout and Olivia was really the one who caused the problems from the get-go with her bullying).

[satyridae · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this over-the-top reworking of an old fairy tale. I found the characters fun and believable, the set-up enjoyable, and the payoff delightful. I loved that it's set in my town, and I dug the Great Aunt a lot. There's a tiny Betsy-Tacy nod embedded in this book, and it made me laugh out loud. I would have loved this even more had I read it at age 9 or so.

Frederick has a sure hand with snappy dialogue, and her middle-schoolers are very true to life.

Disclosure: I'm friends with Frederick in real life.

[ptorres_17 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was a fun read. Using Cat's step-family as the backdrop Frederick artfully used a familiar fairytale to put her characters in extraordinary circumstances. It was funny, touching and exciting all at once. The twists and turns and quick pace makes the book hard to put down.