The Salamander Spell

The Tales of the Frog Princess #5

by E.D. Baker

In this prequel to the Tales of the Frog Princess , Grassina is a young princess-in-training. But as the younger sister to Princess Chartreuse, Grassina is not expected to do much beyond behave herself. When a terrible spell stops her mother from being the good Green Witch, and the Kingdom of Greater Greensward seems to teeter on the brink of terror, Grassina sets off on an errand in the swamp and comes back with some surprises for everyone, including skills that only Chartreuse is supposed to have. Soon it is clear that Grassina has begun to find her own way to the magic she thinks she’ll never have, and luckily for Greater Greensward, the audaciousness—and the ability—to save the kingdom itself.

Genres: Fantasy, Middle Grade, Fairy Tales, Young Adult, Romance, Magic, Fiction

250 pages, Hardcover

First published August 21, 2007

About the author

E.D. Baker made her international debut in 2002 with The Frog Princess, which was a Texas Lone Star Reading List Book, A Book Sense Children's Pick, a Florida's Sunshine State Readers List pick & a 2006 Sasquatch Book Award nominee. The Frog Princess inspired the Disney's Princess and the Frog!


E. D. Baker was born in Buffalo, New York and spent most of the next eighteen years in the Town of Tonawanda with her older brother and her parents. She married her husband while in college, and had two children a few years after graduating from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. When her son was four, the family moved to the state of Maryland. With two young children at home, E.D. worked part time in her husband’s business and took writing classes at the local community college. She continued taking writing classes after the birth of her second daughter, but when she and her husband divorced, she went back to school and entered the SIMAT (School Immersion Masters in the Art of Teaching) program at Johns Hopkins University. After graduating, she taught fifth grade until her parents’ health began to fail. Her son had already graduated from college when E.D. and her daughters moved north to be closer to her parents. Having gained a new perspective on what is important in life, E.D. decided that it was time to believe in herself and devoted her time to writing. Her first book, The Frog Princess, was published in 2002. E.D. has written 25 books to date and has no plans to quite writing anytime soon.

Currently E. D. Baker lives on a small farm in Maryland where she and her family breed Appaloosa horses. They also have dogs, cats and goats.

If you have a question or a comment for E. D. Baker regarding her books, you can e-mail her at edbakerbooks@gmail.com and she will try very hard to reply to your e-mails. (Just keep in mind it may take a while before she responds, because she is working on a new book for you to enjoy!) For updates, announcements on upcoming books and daily posts by E.D. Baker be sure to follow her on Facebook.

Reviews

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book so much! I love this series, all the books are amazing! I can't wait to read the next book :)

[Rhiana · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was okay. It was rather unnecessary, but I suppose it was fun seeing where the characters came from, and how they got to be what they were.The plot itself was sort of bland. Mostly it was just Grassina finding out something we already knew and its sort of frustrating that way. I just sort of wanted to shout "Your the Green Witch! Let's move on now." If there's anything I really liked about the book, it was the ending. The irony of their optimism and certainty was pretty great. So I think it's worth the familiar characters, but don't expect any intense plot, or real resolution to said plot.

[Alivia · Rating 5 out of 5]

grassina is an icon. bring back grassina

[Shanequa · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars for Pippa. She was hilarious. The rest of the book was fine. It dragged on a bit but it was a cute read.

[Paige]

The Salamander Spell
By: E.D. Baker
Review By: Paige Tornow

The Frog Princess Series is back with another amazing story. Emma's aunt Grassina stars in the book, The Salamander Spell. Grassina is about fifteen years old, and is living in her sisters shadow...already. Her sister Chartreuce has it all. Looks, suitors, the kingdom, and even magic, or so it's thought. Life seems almost bearable for Grassina, until her parents have a fight. To make up for it. her father brings her mother a beautiful boquet of flowers, not knowing that the family's women are cursed, and if they even touch a flower, they will lose their beauty as well as their good nature. Not being able to handle it all, Grassina runs away to the only place she's felt comfort, the swamp. Her plans change when she finds a boy, also a runaway, in the spot where she will set up camp. In only a short while, Grassina will find courage, hope, love, and a little magic of her own.
The Salamander Spell was a very interesting book. This fantasy is a great book for anyone who loves the genre, and is a great addition to anyone's collection, if they've read the others in the series. I'd rate it a five out of five for its humor, excitement, and unexpectedness. E.D. Baker makes this book very enjoyable.

[Ecila · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!!!!! i like it sooooo much more than "the frog princess". idk y, i think mostly becuz i knew wut happened to Grassina next, i knew that she and Haywood worked hard to get a happy ending, and that they both had a hard life.(until Grassina was the green witch) and mostly cuz Haywood IS SOOOOO SWEETTTTTT!!! GRASSINA IS SOOOOOO LUCKY, and when they met, there was a spark; but when emma and edric met... no offense to edric but he was kinda a jerk. i didn't like it when Haywood and Grassina started being all gooshy-gooshy to each other, the spark faded, and they where to open. i liked it when the book said stuff like:
as the rain lashed them both, "the boy"(cuz the book didn't introduce Haywood to the reader yet) held Grassina closer, smiling to himself when she snuggled into the warmth of his arms.
awwwwwwwwwwwwwww

[Jenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think The Salamander Spell (The Tales of the Frog Princess, #5) was a very good book. It was intriguing and adventures. It is a book about a girl named Grassina and her sister Chartreuse. Her and her sister had a fight and she ran off and fell in love with Haywood. She later became something very important. This is like problems we face because we have fights with our siblings (We might not find a perfect boy we fall in love with and get married to) but we will always love our siblings.
I really liked this book. The genre is fiction and adventure . If you were to read this book I would start with the first book. All in All The Salamander Spell (The Tales of the Frog Princess, #5) by E.D Baker is a good book with romance and Adventure and I would recommend it to almost anyone.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute and interesting prequel to the Tales of the Frog Princess. In this story, we read about Grassina and Chartreuse (Emma's aunt and mother) as they come of age. We see first-hand the transformation of Olivene into the wicked witch she is when the Tales of the Frog Princess first begin and the problems this causes for the kingdom. It was a nice change in perspective for the stories and I think Grassina was a good choice for the focus of the prequel. The one thing I was surprised to see was that Baker did not make Chartreuse more sympathetic in this prequel. She just isn't a likable character, ever. I also would have liked Baker to go a little bit further in her timeline instead of ending the story when she did. Regardless, still a very nice addition to the Frog Princess works.

[Sella Malin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is the best of the series yet!! Or at least, it's in the same rank as Once Upon a Curse!! I loved this one so much because it was unique and different from all the others. I loved how it went back before the first book, and took a look at Grassina's and Chartreuse's past. I never would have guessed that Chartreuse used to want to do magic; it seems really hard to believe that she hates it so much now! I love how the book showed how things came to be in the series of the Frog Princess; especially how Grassina met Haywood and how she became the Green Witch! I think it's so cool how we got to see how Olivene became evil, and how Aldrid died! This prequel was SOOO AWESOME!!! XD

[Cara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tells the story of how Grassina became the Green Witch, and all the background of that generation. It was pretty interesting although I like the story line with Emma and Eadric a little better. Still a good book though.

2017 edit- I really liked reading about Emma's parents and aunt while they were young. Changed from 3* to 4*.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this prequel to the Frog Princess. It was a fun read from beginning to end.

[dollgowns · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked The Salamander Spell because of how it explained a bit of the history behind Emma's parents, and Grassina. In the book when they were talking about the Green Witch I was a bit confused because the first Green Witch, Hazel, was a complete prat and really wasn't even the Green Witch. Her sister was. Also I wish there was a version of this book that told the story from Chartreuse's point of view. She must have felt heartbroken when all the princes ditched her just because her younger sister got a better title than her. Still it was sweet, how Limelyn asked Chartreuse to marry her but I kind of wonder whether it was really out of love, pity, or maybe just the want of a good kingdom to rule. Maybe all three? Better than nothing. On the bright side the story was awesome but I didn't like some of it. Like when the princes immediately ditched Chartreuse when the prospect of a more powerful wife showed up or even parts of the whole Haywood Grassina mushy stuff. It's sweet and all but getting married when you're younger than twenty just seems weird.

[Lexee Toste · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this story! It was entertaining and pulled me in from beginning to end. It was cool to see Grassina as a young girl and watch her adventures as her mother was cursed and she becomes the Green Witch. I read this book after reading the Frog Princess ones with Princess Emma and I can see this one being fine to read as the first book in the series prequel or as the 5th after the main ones with Emma and Eadric. It was cool to go back and see Grassina as a young girl and watch her interact with both her sister and mother as well as her father and then after her mother is cursed as she deals with everything. I also loved getting to see her meeting with Hayward and how they came to build a friendship and more. This story had plenty of adventure and magic happening as Grassina had to learn to adapt with everything happening around her and the dangers that continued to grow. This story was well written and engaging and I had a lot of fun with it.
The narrator did a great job with the characters and story and bringing it to life.

[The Captain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ahoy there mateys! I found this middle grade series because of Katherine Kellgren who is my favorite audiobook narrator ever. I was also excited because I love Frog Princess retellings. This series has nine books which follow Emma, the frog princess, and other members of her family. Emma kisses the frog and turns into a frog herself!

I absolutely loved books 1 to 5, thought books 6 to 8 were just okay, and really enjoyed book 9. I love Emma who is not your typical princess. I love her quirky family. There are lots of fun side characters like fairies, snakes, ghosts, crabs, dragons, mermaids, trolls, etc. These are romances in that the princesses find their true loves but with twists. For example, one prince is a frog, one is an otter, and one is a dragon. There is another couple that is a typical bat and an vampire. The books are sweet and a lot of fun. I don't own the whole series but I could see myself listening to these again in the future. Arrr!

[Audrey ✧･ﾟ: *✧ · Rating 5 out of 5]

5* - it was amazing

Yes, yes!! Not sure how old I was when I first read this whole series - genuinely think I might have been 10? So much of it went over my head at the time but reading it now was so fun and I adore it just as much. I'm really having a great time reading the books I enjoyed greatly throughout my childhood - very relaxing. Gonna go read the rest of the series, probably. Obsessed. I wish I still had my physical copies of all of them :( Unwrapping these books on my birthday was so exciting.

[Britt Richards · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a warm, happy re-read! I devoured this book when I was younger, and thought it would be a nice comfort read now that I'm an adult. I was right! I love Grassina's character and how she always remained kind no matter what was happening to and around her. Haywood is the sweetest boy saying the swooniest of things. I can't wait to re-read the rest of the series as I revist some of my favorite childhood books.

[Marlee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun book in a series I've been enjoying with my children. It was not exactly as we'd expected, but still enjoyable. It was a little disappointing that we always knew the big events which would be coming, even the one that happens after the end of the book. However, it was a quick, easy read, engaging and great for fans of the frog princess.

[Clara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my favorite series as a kid, and im now rereading all the books. It was as good as I remember. it is meant for kids, which I knew going into this, so I wasn't judging that.

This is my favorite book in this series. I love how all the characters feel different from their older selves, but still, like there, the same person.

[Eliza · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was fun to delve into the past with Chartreuse, Grassina, and Olivene, but it was sad that I knew what was going to happen to Oliveve from the earlier books. All in all it was an awesome adventure. Looking forward to the future with Millie in the next book.

[claud · Rating 3 out of 5]

i know this is a grassina prequel but i do wish we could have seen more of chartreuse’s pov, we still don’t know for sure why chartreuse dislikes magic so much.

i love grassina and haywood, and i liked how we got to see more of them since haywood was an animal for the first two books.

[Katherine Russo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Middle school

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Insipid prequel, none of the fun I remember from the series.

[Rebecca Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun prequel novel to the Princess and the Frog books Emalee and I have been reading together. Answers some questions and focuses on one of my favorite characters from the first four novels.

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had wanted to know more about Haywood and Grassina's stories as I read the earlier books so this was a treat. I really enjoyed this book.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has been my favorite book in the series so far.

[Booknerd2006 · Rating 5 out of 5]

i've been reading this series as fast as i can. you really can't put it down!

[Amie Doughty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some inconsistencies with the earlier books. I wanted to like Grassina's story, but it just wasn't as strong as the earlier books.

[Moriah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I kept thinking, "you are the green witch! Figure it out!" It was a great book.

[Natalie Rytting · Rating 4 out of 5]

so fun . I bet all the other books are as good as what this book was . Highly recommended for kids.

[The · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grassina is so cool