Prince of the Pond (Prince of the Pond Series #1) by Donna Jo Napoli, Judith Byron Schachner (Illustrator), Judy Schachner (Illustrator), Brothers Grimm

From the Publisher

Having been turned into a frog by a hag, a frog-prince makes the best of his new life as he mates, raises a family, and instills a new kind of thinking into his frog family.

Publishers Weekly

This variation on ``The Frog Prince'' is told by Jade, a watchful female frog who teaches the bewitched royal how to survive in the pond. Jade eventually becomes a frog wife and mother to a school of tadpoles. The romance between these two characters, somewhat convoluted and tinged with adult sensibilities, changes Jade's outlook and alters the traditional habits of the frog world. Incorporated into the story are absorbing observations about pond life from a factual perspective. However, Pin's attempts to humanize the frog world are questionable, as his eventual return to human form in front of his amphibian family leaves them saddened and bereft. The story is further weakened by an ongoing, supposedly comic device: the Prince, due to a problem with his tongue, indulges in a kind of baby talk, so that his words emerge as ``fawg'' for frog and ``obteh'' for lobster . Aided little by Schachner's rough-hewn black-and-white drawings (a few witty, some repetitious), the story, sadly, does not measure up to its premise. Ages 7-10. (Oct.)

School Library Journal

Gr 4-6-- When a female frog comes upon an attractive but very confused male sitting near a pile of human clothing, she's appalled to see that his feet tangle when he tries to leap, that his tongue keeps falling out of his mouth, and that he doesn't seem to know the first thing about frog behavior or predators. Though she does persuade him to eat bugs, he never learns to speak clearly, with ``I'm De Fawg Pin'' being a typical utterance, and he stubbornly clings to odd ideas (e.g., that the young must be cared for). He also demonstrates reckless, very unfroglike courage, and while rescuing one of his 50 offspring, he suddenly disappears. ``Pin's'' companion never does figure out what's going on, but readers will; his situation and reeducation is defined in broad, comic strokes against an accurate, almost technical, picture of pond ecology. The froggy characters are clearly delineated, and their feelings for one another are genuine, to the point that many readers may greet the prince's reversion to human form with mixed emotions. Ornamental borders and Schachner's pictures of goggle-eyed, expressive frogs in detailed, natural settings give the book a formal, dignified look that plants the tongue even more firmly in cheek. --John Peters, New York Public Library

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