Οnce in a land not too far from here and in a time not too long ago there lived a beautiful maiden who grants an enchanted frog three wishes in payment for a favor. But when one of the wishes is that she come with him and be his bride, she refuses, angrily hurling him against the wall to his death.
The frog turns then into a handsome and noble youth, and the maiden instantly loves him as he already loves her. But because the maiden has not kept her promise, her lover must now go to a faraway kingdom "east of the sun and west of the moon" to be wed instead to the hideous troll princess who first enchanted him.
He is carried away by a host of demons, and the maiden sets out on a long and difficult journey to a magical yet perilous land on the farthest reaches of the imagination, determined to find her beloved. The way leads across a great sea...over a mountain of ice...and through a fiery cave. Many strange and wonderful creatures aid her in her search for the faraway land, and each one warns her, "If you reach it, you will not find a welcome within."
Here, through bold, evocative prose and flowing, full-color paintings, author-illustrator Mercer Mayer has created a stirring tale of a maiden's quest to atone her past faithlessness and prove her true love. In Mercer Mayer's version of the classic Frog Prince tale, one is not rewarded for breaking promises or killing frogs. But one comes to deserve one's final happiness through work and waiting and a love that endures. A feast for the eyes and the heart, it is a story readers young and old will want to return to again and again.
Mercer Mayer was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, and grew up in Hawaii. He has studied at the Honolulu Academy of Art and at the Art Students League in New York City. He is the author-illustrator of many books for young readers, including What Do You Do with a Kangaroo?, winner of the Brooklyn Art Books for Children Citation, Liza Lou and the Yeller Belly Swamp; and The Great Cat Chase. Among the many books he has illustrated are The Reward Worth Having; Everyone Knows What a Dragon Looks Like, winner of the 1976 Irma Simonton Black Award and named one of the nine best illustrated books of the year by The New York Times; and the very popular Beauty and the Beast. He lives with his wife, Jo, and their two children in Connecticut.
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