Chil­dren’s

Frogs and French Kisses

Sarah Mly­nows­ki
  • Review
By – December 19, 2011

The mag­ic con­tin­ues in the fun and sassy sec­ond install­ment of the Bras and Broom­sticks Tril­o­gy. This is a fun, light­heart­ed book with a Jew­ish pro­tag­o­nist named Rachel, who is a bit jeal­ous that her sis­ter Miri and her moth­er are witch­es with mag­i­cal pow­ers. The nov­el begins on a night­time flight dur­ing spring break in the dark, coun­try sky. When Miri finds some soon-to-be slaugh­tered cows, she sends them to safe­ty — in this case — Rachel’s high school gym. Dam­ages are high and the upcom­ing prom threatened. 

But the prom prob­lem is just the begin­ning. Mom and Miri start act­ing more like witch­es gone wild than their usu­al lev­el head­ed selves. Mom cre­ates a new wardrobe, com­plete with cleav­age. Dat­ing fills her cal­en­dar, with no time left for fam­i­ly. Miri’s quest to save the world make her stud­ies suf­fer. And of course, that allimpor­tant love spell goes pre­dictably wrong. It’s up to Rachel to impose some lim­its. She learns that noth­ing impor­tant ever comes easily. 

Although Miri’s Save the World List” makes a great mag­i­cal tikkun olam list, ref­er­ences to Judaism remain strict­ly side­bar, lim­it­ed to flash­backs. The first-per­son nar­ra­tive is fast-paced and smart. Sub­plots are pre­dictable, but the sur­prise end­ing will make read­ers wish they could wig­gle their noses to con­jure up the forth­com­ing conclusion. 

For ages 12 and up. 

Sarah Aron­son holds an MFA in Writ­ing for Chil­dren and Young Adults from Ver­mont Col­lege. She is a full time writer and has recent­ly pub­lished her first nov­el, Head Case (Roar­ing Brook) for young adults. Sara blogs every Thurs­day for the Lilith blog.

Discussion Questions