So, you have a small town that has had the annual tradition of choosing twelve dairy princesses and carving their likeness in butter and displaying them at the bridge until they melt. It' been going on as long as anyone can remember. Except for this year-environmental protestors have decried the idea of all that butter ending up in the river! Uh oh. Seems the whole thing dates back to a pact with a troll made when the town was built. Cue the capture of the 'princesses', including Moira, a harpist who was only reluctantly going along with this in the first place. For good measure, throw in a wildly popular boy band, a group of brothers, who car crossed the bridge at the wrong time. Moira and Jakob, with the help of a mysterious fiddle playing fox, must wake and rescue the others before the troll and his family turns them into supper. But is the fox spirit really an ally? Meanwhile, back in the town, the author adds hilarious radio reports from a dj reporting on the mysterious disappearance. At the end of the book is a collection of songs written for the story. This is an entertaining read. ( )

Jane Yolen has written many absolutely lovely short stories of the kind that read like half-forgotten myth, along with a couple of fairly blah fantasies. This is aimed at young readers. It's pretty gruesome in places (young readers will probably appreciate this more than I did). A small town in Minnesota inadvertently breaks a centuries-old pact, and brings a terrible fate down on itself. Only a Dairy Princess and three brothers who just happen to be a boy band can save them all. The subtitle is 'A Rock 'n' Roll Fairy Tale', but 'rock 'n' roll' is a bit of a stretch. There are, however, some rather regrettable attempts at songs scattered throughout the book. I skipped over these as much as I could ( )

I got both of Yolen/Stemple's "Rock and Roll Fairy Tale" books (the other is Pay the Piper) for $1 each, and was super excited because the concept and titles hooked me.  Though I have yet to read Pay the Piper, Troll Bridge was a little disappointing.  I mean, it was cute enough, and a quick read for sure, but it was just...shallow in the telling. It never really grabbed me enough to make me need to keep reading.

I'm not entirely sure where the fault lies.  Part of it, I think, is that it's definitely more middle grade, and I wasn't expecting that, and I don't know that my brain ever fully shifted over and altered expectations.  I kept thinking that it would have been nice to have more development and depth, but that's partly because I was coming at it thinking it was aimed for an older audience.  I think, too, that the musical elements, and the sort of poprock poetry/songs ala what I assume the Jonas Brothers write (and lord help me if my little sister ever reads this), felt forced at times, and where on occasion they were cute and bolstered the story, at other times, they just seemed unnecessary and a little silly.  It's hard, because it's a part of the story, and it's really a crucial part at that, but it just didn't always feel natural.  Part of me wonders if this was due to the attempted blending of Yolen's writing and Stemple's (her son).  Books with multiple authors are writing a book and trying to make their combined writing seamless seem to struggle to me.  (At least where each author isn't writing their own segments from a set POV.  The blending just never seems to work for me.)

But I did like Moira, who was a fun, plucky heroine, and I liked the brothers, and the predicaments they found themselves in.  The fairy tale elements - both the tales that were woven in and the typical tropes found in fairy tales - were used in a fun way, and I don't consider the book a waste of my time.  I was more ambivalent in the beginning, which was slightly rocky for me (but again, as I said, this could be due to the fact that I was expecting a YA read, not a MG); but as it went along and they found themselves deeper in the world of Trollholm, it became more readable and fun, and the ending, though a bit abrupt, was enjoyable.
All in all, it was a quick, fun and silly read, though flawed and not entirely memorable. ( )

Twelve girls have been chosen to be the butter princesses which involves having their faces made of butter and put on the Trollholm bridge, a tradition in Vanderby. They also have to do a variety of different publicity and whilst at a photo shoot Moira (a harpist protege) and the other butter princesses plus photographer are swept away by a sudden wave from the river and carried off by a giant troll. The troll needs the girls to be brides for his three sons after the compact between him and the humans has been broken (the new major thinks that leaving butter sculptures on a bridge is bad for the river so has stopped the tradition).

Back in the human realm the three Griffson brothers are part of a really popular teenage band. They take a road trip and end up on the Trollholm bridge and are also swept away by the troll. They are to be food for the troll and his three families and are seperated into the different larders and tied up. Things don't look good for either party until a strange fox turns up (Fossegrim) wh is able to speak in the minds of musciains. He has a grudge against the trolls who have trapped him in his fox form and he can no longer take on a human form. As the story progresses though is he really on their side or is he only using them to further his own agenda.

A great mix of The Three Billy Goats Gruff and The Twelve Dancing Princesses. The musical aspects of the story worked really well and I really liked that things were not all that they seemed with the trolls and Foss. Definitely recommended to all who love fairy tales as well as a good story. ( )

A funny, clever story that recreates the 12 dancing princesses as local dairy queens and the three billy goats gruff as a popular boy band. Moira, one of the dairy queens and a famous classical musician, must save herself and the Griffsons from the trolls the dairy queens have been kidnapped by. ( )