Customer Reviews

The Prince of the Pond (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am agog at the reviews that complain about Pin's speech being annoying, or the biology lesson feel of the book. My kids (5 and 7) and I loved this poignant story of acceptance: acceptance of others' differences, of one's changing circumstances. They laughed themselves silly as Pin outwitted the pond's predators. I was incredibly touched by the lessons learned by both Pin and Jade as they got to know each other better. We never found the information the story conveyed to be heavy-handed or intrusive. It is one of the most imaginative books I've read in a long time. Beautiful illustrations and beautiful characters.

My ten year old and I loved this book and could not stop reading it. I was touched by the metaphor for life, cold blooded frogs learn to love and be a family. How deeply Pin loved his wife and family. How patient Jade was with his speech difficulties with his giant frog tongue. What fun it was to learn about the life of the pond and frogs in a way that was incidental to the story. This story was a powerful package of life, love, and facts of pond life, and how making room in your heart for love leads to extraordinary events. The drawings were a wonderful preview of what might happen next.

The Pond.
There is a prince named Pin who has something happen to him. He gets turned into a frog by a hag. Then a frog comes by and becomes his friend. Pin calls this frog Jade.
Some events in this story are Pin the frog doesn't want to have his babies to get eaten. He doesn't stay at the pond so he goes to a well instead. Where there are no water snakes no bullfrogs and no water scorpions and good bugs to eat.

Something I learned from this book is somethings that may be important to us may not always be important to frogs. Some frogs may have the same resemblance as us like we both need water to survive. A message that the author might be sending is that we both don't always do everything the dame and probably never will.

What I Love about this book is that there are a lot of outside activities and gorgeous ponds. The amount of sunny days reminds me of a beautiful summer day. It makes me happy when I read this book. I think that if your

The Prince of the Pond: Otherwise Known As De Fawg Pin is a sweet, hilarious story for the young and the young-at-heart. I'm one of the latter, as I was almost hysterical with the giggles at the very silliness of a lisping frog. Although I do not care for amphibians at all, I found the illustrations excellent and learned a thing or two since they also have a slightly biology-lesson feel. The story also provided facts about frogs that will interest children.

The story is narrated by a female frog who befriends our hapless hero, Pin. The basic tale of The Frog Prince is maintained, but only as shell. The real story revolves around Pin's adaptation to his new world and the compromises of his human and frog selves.

Donna Jo Napoli did a wonderful job of creating just the right mood for each scene - light and carefree when the frogs are playing, a little menacing when the mean old bullfrog comes, and particularly sweet when Pin is determined to save all his hundreds of tadpole children. A bit of the fantastic, the scientific, and the winsome. Also charming is the sequel, Jimmy, the Pickpocket of the Palace.

I love Donna Jo Napoli's fairy tale retellings, so of course I had to read this one too. But The Prince of the Pond was quite different--and, unfortunately, inferior--to Zel or The Magic Circle. For a start, the target audience was much younger than for the other books--third grade and up, I'd say. Also, Prince of the Pond had a light, slightly humorous tone, which did not fit well with the bittersweet ending. Pin's speech problems got to annoying me, and it was never explained why he couldn't say "thh" and "rrr" and "ssss" but other frogs could. And I didn't like the drawings much at all, which, I think, detracted from my enjoyment of the story. One of the biggest problems, though, was the biology lesson. At times it seemed like the author's chief purpose was to impart scientific information about frogs. These "educational" parts tended to get in the way of the real story. They were especially jarring because the book was narrated by a frog, and it seemed quite odd that a frog should know all this, and even more odd that she should talk about it all the time. They use words like "metamorphosis", and there are sentences like "Our goggle-like eyelids kept out the water but still let us see the underwater world." And, "Your stomach acids will dissolve his [a crayfish's] hard shell." (Frogs should just take these things for granted. I mean, humans don't go around saying things like, "It is cold today, but luckily I am warm-blooded.") This, combined with the very simple writing style, often gave the feeling of an elementary school reader. Despite these problems, the story was engaging and quick-moving, and I cared about the characters enough so that I was happy to find out there was a sequel--Jimmy, the Pickpocket of the Palace. Overall--3.5/5

I LOVED this book as a child. It has stuck with me over the years and it is one I will always remember and recommend. I remember laughing so much, while my teacher read it to us. I couldn't wait to hear him read it each day!

I do, however, want to point out two things that a parent should be aware of about this book. 1) The ending of the story is not what I would call a happy ending. It is a bit of a harsh reality type ending. 2) Napoli is factual and detailed when describing the realities of frog life...including the making of tadpoles.

Regardless, my third grade teacher read it to my class and we were able to handle it and enjoy it. :)

There were few read out-loud books which grabbed my children and their classmates as completely as this one. They quickly grasped that this was a retelling of the fairy tale of the Princess and the Frog, but from the frog's point of view. The real joy though came in talking like "de fawg pin," and having the chance to quote such lines as "you dum...you da king ub dum...." without getting in trouble for name calling.

Talking like the de Fawg Pin is easy once you master putting your tongue at the back of your lower front teeth and keeping it there while you say things. It's so much fun!!

I highly recommend this book as a read out-loud for children 5-9 year old and any parent or teacher who might enjoy a lively read.

The Prince of the Pond is charming and well-written, a funny, romantic and moving story of love and commitment- and a wonderful take on the Frog Prince of fairy tales. It's also full of accurate frog science facts, too, which I find particularly appealing. I read this out-loud to my husband over a span of a several nights and we deeply enjoyed it. We were genuinely sorry to come to the end of the story. We look forward to reading more from this author!

I'm reading this to my 7 year old son. He hates the typical books for his age - doesn't like "danger" and wants the characters to be nice to each other. He is utterly charmed by this story. We read it at bedtime and he tells his sister about the latest developments the next day. If your kids liked the The World According to Humphrey (Humphrey) books or Coville's The Dragon of Doom (Moongobble and Me) series, they'll probably love this one as well.

This is a charming book, my husband read this aloud to our 6 year old and we all enjoyed hearing the updated version of the classic story of The Frog Prince.

The story was sweet and funny and the language was amusing. I don't know how well I would have done with it if I had been the reader, but my husband really got into it...the frog prince has a bit of a speech impediment.

We have read our daughter many, many, many books that she enjoyed and we did not but this one was a hit with old and young alike.

I also like that it's a chapter book with pictures, our daughter was reluctant to move away from chapter books with pictures so this was perfect for us. It's a sophisticated enough story with pictures to add to the enjoyment for her.