Edith H. TarcovCritiques

Cartoon like illustrations, proportions are odd. Princess throws frog against wall instigating the transformation. No mention of Iron Henry.

I just found my copy of this in a storage box. Of course I kept it; how I loved Gorey as a child.

Highly disappointing. Gorey may have a unique viewpoint, but it's wasted (and entirely unused) on this retelling.

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This book offers simplified versions of three stories from The Arabian Nights: "Sinbad the Sailor and the Valley of the Diamonds," "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves," and "Ali Cogia and the Thousand Pieces of Gold." Each story includes a moral.

Rumpelstiltskin is a fairy tale about a poor miller who has a beautiful daughter whom he wants to marry the king, so he tells the king that she can spin straw into gold. The king decides to see if it is true and locks her in three different sized rooms to spin him enough gold, and if she could he would marry her. But what the king does not know is that the daughter has not been spinning the gold, but it was actually a little man who she would give things to in return. But the last deal she made was to give him her first baby when she became queen. After she was married, she forgot about her deal but the little man remembered and offered her three days to figure out his name, or he would come and take the baby.
I liked this story very much. The first reason I liked the story was because it was a fairy tale with a small meaning behind it-Don't make promises you do not really intend to keep. The daughter made Rumpelstiltskin a promise to give him her first baby "Yes! Yes! I promise!". But after she became queen and had her first child, she did not want to keep that promise to him. The second reason I liked this book was because it was entertaining. At the end, Rumpelstiltskin thought the queen would not know his name and that he would get to keep the baby, and he was having his own little party in the woods. Singing his song "Tonight my cakes I bake. Tonight my beer I make. Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow the queen's little baby I take!" He was so sure that he would get away with it, and the illustration of him dancing showed how excited he was.

One of my favorite children's stories because despite the powerful and nasty men around her the poor woman in the story manages to become the heroine.

The Frog Prince is about a frog that promises to get a princess' golden ball from the bottom of a well, as long as she promises that he can eat, drink, and sleep in a comfy bed with her. She makes an empty promise to him, but her father forces her to keep it. The frog does all these things with her. When she gets so mad at the frog that she throws him against a wall, the frog magically turns into a prince.
This is a good book to teach kids about responsibility and keeping promises. The illustrations are funny and may be amusing to kids.

Summary: A princess playing by a water well finds her prince. The princess drops her golden ball into a well where a cursed prince, that had been turned into a frog sat. The princess drops her golden ball into the well and begins to cry. The frog makes a proposition to her, if he retreives her golden ball the princess has to take him home with her and become her freind. The princess makes a promise to do so butthen leaves the frog who follows her to the castle anyway. The frog arrives at the castle, but the princess does not let him in, at which time the king tells the princess that she made a promise and must keep it. The princess becomes angry with thefrog and throws him against the wall at which time he turns into a prince and they live happily ever after.

Personal Reaction: A story abount princesses, frogs, kings, and castles, one of my favorite stories. Who wouldn't like a story like that. The best part is the ending, the happily ever after.

Teaching Extensions:
1) The Frog Prince could be used in a history lesson to talk about midieval times.
2) The Frog Prince could be used to teach the importance of honesty and responsibility.
3) The Frog Prince can be a lesson in the importance of friendship.

This is a book that strays from the classic tale of a princess kissing a frog and the frog turning into a prince. The story line would really amuse a young audience of readers. However, this book would be challenging for a first or second grader to read by themselves so you could create a read-aloud lesson plan for this book. Have the students get into a literature circle and read alout this story to them. Emphasize the new vocabulary words in the story before you begin reading it and place these vocab words on the board or somewhere where they can all see. Then throughout the novel have the students with your guidance develop meaning for each of the vocab words.

Cartoon like illustrations, proportions are odd. Princess throws frog against wall instigating the transformation. No mention of Iron Henry.½

I thought the illustrations could be a little prettier. It has the older ending version, which means there was no kissing of the frog prince. It's still ok for little kids though.

2.95