Tales of the Frog Princess Books in Order

The Tales of the Frog Princess books are where Baker's fairy-tale world really starts. The first book opens with Princess Emeralda, usually called Emma, who is nothing like the polished royal her family would prefer. She is awkward, outspoken, and not especially interested in doing princess things properly. When she meets a frog who claims to be an enchanted prince and kisses him to help, the spell backfires and turns her into a frog too.

That switch gives the series its comic engine. Emma and Prince Eadric have to travel through swamps, castles, and magical country while trying to get back to human form, and Baker fills the road with witches, dragons, snakes, bats, and all sorts of odd helpers and hazards. Greater Greensward feels like a fairy-tale kingdom that has been allowed to get muddy and strange, which is a big part of the appeal.

The early books follow Emma and Eadric through one quest after another. Dragon's Breath, Once Upon A Curse, and No Place for Magic build out the world and keep testing Emma's courage, common sense, and sometimes unreliable magic. The Salamander Spell steps backward in time to tell Aunt Grassina's story, which adds background to the kingdom and shows that Emma comes from a larger, very magical family line.

Later on, the focus shifts to the next generation. The Dragon Princess, Dragon Kiss, and A Prince among Frogs move toward Emma's daughter Millie, who has problems of her own, especially when anger turns her into a dragon. Those books keep the series connected to the original family while changing the viewpoint and opening the door to new friendships, romances, and monsters. The Frog Princess Returns circles back with an extra adventure set between earlier Emma books.

The series keeps growing, but it never loses its sense of fun.

What holds all of these books together is Baker's mix of capable heroines, comic magic, and stories that care as much about friendship and family as they do about spells. This is also the series that helped inspire Disney's The Princess and the Frog, though the books have their own tone and plot. Expect quests, transformations, talking animals, and a lot of situations where the smart answer is very different from the neat fairy-tale answer. If you like fantasy that feels classic but a little offbeat, this is the Baker series most readers start with.