THE FROG PRINCIPAL

“Even though I’m small, green and slimy, I can still be a good principal, can’t I?” So hopes P.S. 88’s responsible, much-loved Mr. Bundy, afflicted by a bumbling magician’s spell in this ribbit-tickling companion to The Principal’s New Clothes (1989). Calmenson sticks to the original folktale’s broad outlines: Bundy offers to fetch a baseball from the pond if his stunned students will accept him as the substitute Principal while the real Mr. Bundy is “away,” and though they make their promise with fingers crossed, they’re forced to stick to their bargain. Brunkus endows both him and his young charges with a lively range of expressions and postures before, during, and (finally) after his transformation. Even on four legs, Bundy is the very model of a benevolent father figure, spending more time in halls and classrooms than in the office. But when he finally regains his old, dapper—no Captain Underpants he—shape not by being thrown against the wall, or, as in sappy modern versions, being kissed, but by taking a baseball on the noggin, students and teachers welcome him back joyfully. Lucky is the school with a Principal like Mr. Bundy. (Picture book. 6-8)