Customer Reviews

The Prince of the Pond: Otherwise Known as de Fawg Pin

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Now, this was not a terrible book, but it wasn't great eithier. It starts when Jade, a frog who tells the story, discovers a strange new frog. It's a prince who has been transformed by an old hag. We never learn why, so that bugged me. Jade calls the prince "Pin", for the prince cannot speak right with his new tongue, which can be annoying sometimes. I found the pictures to be a nice addition. Overall, a cute story that later veers away and becomes serious...which ruins the whole thing.

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.

My husband and I have read this book several times to our children, starting over a year ago. The book disappeared for awhile but we had much excitement when it turned up last week. The kids are 4 and 5 years old and they have loved the story from the start. The five-year-old picks up on the emotional content of the story; the four-year-old loves the action scenes.

When reading it aloud, we stumble over the references to the "mating hole," but the children don't notice anything missing when we use the word "well" instead. Now that our daughter is reading, the gig may be up.

I love this book and am dismayed that Napoli's other books may be for an older audience.

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.

Unlike most of the other reviewers here, neither I nor my nine-year-old enjoyed this book. The premise is good, but the family-values morality is heavy-handed and the writing limps along.

My 6-year-old daughter and I couldn't wait to get into bed every night to read what was going to happen to Pin and Jade. We would talk about it during the day and dive into bed at night to start our adventure. She loved the way Pin talked. Just thinking about it can set her off giggling. We also learned so much. Just the other day she asked me if I had known something about frogs that we learned in the book. The bittersweet ending was a little bit difficult for her, but after Charlotte's Web it was a breeze. And how thrilled she was to find out that the adventure continues in 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

We came across this book serendipitously at the libraryrecently. My 10 year old son & I used it as one of our read aloudnight time stories. We laughed until we cried and read it all in one night. We took turns reading because we were laughing so hard. The next day I took it to work and shared it with other children's book lovers. We all wanted to order at least one for ourselves and one to send on to family. This story and illustrations are beyond words. To get a smile all we say is "We are FAWGS!".

My teacher started reading this to our sixth grade class, and by the end of the first chapter, no one wanted her to stop. It is a very funny story about the frog prince's life as a frog, before he turned into a prince. As you are reading, you learn a lot about frogs, too!

When I first saw this book, I thought that it was a childish fairytale. However, it is actually very interesting with a nice twist to it. The frog, who was once a human, attempts to take care of his thousands of children despite the fact that frogs are cold-blooded and do not traditionally take care of their young. I read this book hoping that every chapter would not be the last and I hope to read its sequel.