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The Frog Prince
As payment for retrieving the princess' ball, the frog exacts a promise which the princess is reluctant to fulfill.
34 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1975
1 person is currently reading
65 people want to read
About the author
Paul Galdone
281 books88 followersPaul Galdone (1907 - November 7, 1986) was a children's literature author and illustrator. He was born in Budapest and he emigrated to the United States in 1921. He studied art at the Art Student's League and New York School for Industrial Design. He served for the US Army during world War II.
He illustrated nearly all of Eve Titus' books including the Basil of Baker Street series which was translated to the screen in the animated Disney film, The Great Mouse Detective.
Galdone and Titus were nominated for Caldecott Medals for Anatole (1957) and Anatole and the Cat (1958). The titles were later named Caldecott Honor books in 1971.
He died of a heart attack in Nyack, New York. He was posthumously awarded the 1996 Kerlan Award for his contribution to children's literature. His retellings of classic tales like "The Little Red Hen" or "Three Billy Goats Gruff" have become staples.
He illustrated nearly all of Eve Titus' books including the Basil of Baker Street series which was translated to the screen in the animated Disney film, The Great Mouse Detective.
Galdone and Titus were nominated for Caldecott Medals for Anatole (1957) and Anatole and the Cat (1958). The titles were later named Caldecott Honor books in 1971.
He died of a heart attack in Nyack, New York. He was posthumously awarded the 1996 Kerlan Award for his contribution to children's literature. His retellings of classic tales like "The Little Red Hen" or "Three Billy Goats Gruff" have become staples.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
February 22, 2022
This rating is for the edition adapted and illustrated by Paul Galdone.
December 3, 2020
The tale obviously isn't such a great one, the frog makes a contract with someone who is underage, the king enforces the contract, the girl breaks the contract, the prince still takes her as a princess, and the servant is only happy when Master is happy. The story sucks...But I loved it when I was little. It's a fairy tale and a good story time read.
November 2, 2017
Beautiful illustrations! Nice telling of the Frog Price story.
October 8, 2018
Wonderful telling of the frog prince tale.
August 13, 2021
Why does the pouty princess get rewarded with marriage when she savagely tosses the frog-prince against the wall and he goes splat? Both my 5 year old and I were perplexed by the moral of this one
October 6, 2024
This book was good. It is a different twist on the typical girl kissing a frog to get her prince story. In this book, the King's daughter loves throwing a golden ball in the air and catching it in the woods. One day the ball rolled into a pond. She was heartbroken that she lost it. While crying, a frog began talking to her and told the King's daughter that he would retrieve the ball for her if she did something for him. The frog asked if she would love him and she made the promise because she wanted her ball back. Once the frog found her ball, the King's daughter skipped back to the castle forgetting all about the frog. The frog shows up at the castle and asks for the daughter. The King tells his daughter to uphold her promise and allows the frog to stay. The daughter was angry. She threw the frog across the room and it turned into a handsome prince.
I would include this book in my classroom library for students to read.
I would include this book in my classroom library for students to read.
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September 26, 2019Traditional Literature
This is the story of the Frog Prince. A princess dropped her golden ball down a well and a frog tells her he will retrieve it for her only if she promises to be his companion. The frog retrieves the ball for her and the princess goes back home. The frog followed her there and told the king about the promise she made. So the frog stayed and when the frog hopped up into her bed she threw him across the room and he turned into a handsome prince who was turned into a frog by a terrible witch. They went off and got married.
This is the story of the Frog Prince. A princess dropped her golden ball down a well and a frog tells her he will retrieve it for her only if she promises to be his companion. The frog retrieves the ball for her and the princess goes back home. The frog followed her there and told the king about the promise she made. So the frog stayed and when the frog hopped up into her bed she threw him across the room and he turned into a handsome prince who was turned into a frog by a terrible witch. They went off and got married.
April 25, 2023
I'm giving this 3 stars for the illustrations, but the story itself..yuck! I know, it's an adaptation of a Grimm fairy tale, but still..trickery, spoiled behavior, cruelty to animals and the inevitable "prize" of becoming a wife..not the messages I want to send to my grandchildren. I think I'll stick to the Disney versions for now, at least Tatiana had a mind & career of her own.
January 1, 2018
Frog gets treated like crap but turns into a prince anyway. Kudos to the king who tried to set his bratty daughter straight.
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October 14, 2018This is a very classic tale of the Princess and the Frog. The King's beautiful daughter loses her ball in the well. A frog hears her crying and wants to help her, but he needs help himself as well. He needs a loving companion, so he tells her that he will give her back her ball only under these conditions. However, the princess does not follow through on her end of the deal, and ditches the frog. The next day, the frog shows up at the palace and demands that she keeps her promise. The king tells her that she must follow through, so she lets him in, but is still not very nice to the prince. She throws the frog at the wall, and when he lands he becomes a prince. The two become married and live happily ever after.
May 24, 2013
The Frog Prince by the Brothers Grimm
I read this classic fairy tale in the Classics of Children’s Literature (6th Edition) by John W. Griffith and Charles H. Frey. Published by Pearson in Upper Saddle River, NJ in 2005.
My initial response to the Grimms’ The Frog Prince is that it clearly follows the mythos, or master plot, that structures many fairy tales. For instance, the Prince was victimized by a “wicked witch” and altered into a frog (p. 45). The Prince’s loyal servant was so distraught by the alteration that his heart had to be protected with iron belts—this information not only promotes a message of loyalty but also offers evidence to reinforce the wickedness of the witch. Her act was so ghastly it had dire repercussions beyond the Prince. The Prince, now a frog, spent his time in the woods, assumingly encountering adventures until the King’s daughter comes along to offer a resolution. The King also contents to the Prince marrying his daughter, which consequently results in the familiar fairy tale ending of a restructured family. In contrast, The Frog Prince is different from other fairy tales because the King had to order his daughter to hold true to her word and free the Prince from his altered state.
The Grimms’ must have had some purpose or alternative function in mind when writing the story in this way. To better understand this, I asked myself, how would the story have been different if the King did not influence his daughter? What if we deleted the lines: “that which thou hast promised must thou perform,” “so go now and let him in,” and “That which thou hast promised in thy time of necessity, must thou perform.” (p. 45)? I have a sneaky suspicion that the daughter would have left the Prince (the frog) sitting on the doorstep and she would have been punished in some monstrous way for her deception. The King’s influence was critical in the movement of the plot and ultimately led to the resolution being possible.
Knowing the Grimms’ lost their father early in life , it could be they sought to make the King (a father) a hero. Especially due to the fact of the daughter being the youngest. In fairy tales, the youngest is typically disadvantaged and despite her grand beauty, she lacked understanding and wisdom and her struggle with this ethical dilemma might not have been overcome without intervention from the father. She needed a hero and the King served that function. It could also be that the King serves as a divine force or hero for the Prince, in addition to his influence over his daughter. The Prince overcomes his frog state because of the daughter learning about integrity and setting aside her own discomfort to repay a good deed.
The King’s influence corresponds to the influence the Cat held in Perrault’s The Master Cat, or Puss in Boots. The youngest son would not have been able to overcome his misfortune without the cleverness of the Cat to manipulate others and help the youngest son achieve a higher status in society. However, there is an obvious difference here. In The Frog Prince, the King was intervening to prevent deception and in The Master Cat, the Cat was intervening to assert deception. The Brothers Grimm seem to be more meticulous in ensuring that their tales taught values, while Perrault’s emphasis might have been more directed on the art of storytelling. However, I do prefer the Grimms’ stories and the language is very much a cause of that.
See this review and more on my blog: http://randiesreviews.blogspot.com/
I read this classic fairy tale in the Classics of Children’s Literature (6th Edition) by John W. Griffith and Charles H. Frey. Published by Pearson in Upper Saddle River, NJ in 2005.
My initial response to the Grimms’ The Frog Prince is that it clearly follows the mythos, or master plot, that structures many fairy tales. For instance, the Prince was victimized by a “wicked witch” and altered into a frog (p. 45). The Prince’s loyal servant was so distraught by the alteration that his heart had to be protected with iron belts—this information not only promotes a message of loyalty but also offers evidence to reinforce the wickedness of the witch. Her act was so ghastly it had dire repercussions beyond the Prince. The Prince, now a frog, spent his time in the woods, assumingly encountering adventures until the King’s daughter comes along to offer a resolution. The King also contents to the Prince marrying his daughter, which consequently results in the familiar fairy tale ending of a restructured family. In contrast, The Frog Prince is different from other fairy tales because the King had to order his daughter to hold true to her word and free the Prince from his altered state.
The Grimms’ must have had some purpose or alternative function in mind when writing the story in this way. To better understand this, I asked myself, how would the story have been different if the King did not influence his daughter? What if we deleted the lines: “that which thou hast promised must thou perform,” “so go now and let him in,” and “That which thou hast promised in thy time of necessity, must thou perform.” (p. 45)? I have a sneaky suspicion that the daughter would have left the Prince (the frog) sitting on the doorstep and she would have been punished in some monstrous way for her deception. The King’s influence was critical in the movement of the plot and ultimately led to the resolution being possible.
Knowing the Grimms’ lost their father early in life , it could be they sought to make the King (a father) a hero. Especially due to the fact of the daughter being the youngest. In fairy tales, the youngest is typically disadvantaged and despite her grand beauty, she lacked understanding and wisdom and her struggle with this ethical dilemma might not have been overcome without intervention from the father. She needed a hero and the King served that function. It could also be that the King serves as a divine force or hero for the Prince, in addition to his influence over his daughter. The Prince overcomes his frog state because of the daughter learning about integrity and setting aside her own discomfort to repay a good deed.
The King’s influence corresponds to the influence the Cat held in Perrault’s The Master Cat, or Puss in Boots. The youngest son would not have been able to overcome his misfortune without the cleverness of the Cat to manipulate others and help the youngest son achieve a higher status in society. However, there is an obvious difference here. In The Frog Prince, the King was intervening to prevent deception and in The Master Cat, the Cat was intervening to assert deception. The Brothers Grimm seem to be more meticulous in ensuring that their tales taught values, while Perrault’s emphasis might have been more directed on the art of storytelling. However, I do prefer the Grimms’ stories and the language is very much a cause of that.
See this review and more on my blog: http://randiesreviews.blogspot.com/
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February 5, 2012The Frog Prince did not strike me as a good children's story. It has many of the fairy tale elements that we spoke of in class, except that the princess is cruel. The princess is also portrayed as someone who cannot deal with her own problems and must have a man, or in some cases a frog, to help her get out of the predicament. I also felt like part of the plot is contrived because on one page the princess throws the frog against a wall and he turns into a prince, and on the next page they are getting married. Wouldn't the prince be mad that she threw him against a wall? Small kids might think this part is funny, but it just annoyed me.
June 23, 2015
This book is about a frog who makes a princess make a promise to him. And when that princess fulfills her promise, he turns into a handsome prince! They live happily ever after.
I like this book because it goes right along with the classic story. The illustrations look a bit weird. The people are strange looking, but the frog, he looks great!
I would use this book with my children because it has a good moral lesson that they could learn from. They would love the illustrations, and they would enjoy the story.
I like this book because it goes right along with the classic story. The illustrations look a bit weird. The people are strange looking, but the frog, he looks great!
I would use this book with my children because it has a good moral lesson that they could learn from. They would love the illustrations, and they would enjoy the story.
June 27, 2008
The Frog Prince strikes me as a very poignant story. The princess acts juvenile and even cruel but her father takes responsibility and ensures she keeps her word. Once the princess acts like an adult she is rewarded with an adult life. I like the melancholy aspect of the illustrations, they seem well suited to fairy-tales in general and this one in particular.
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February 8, 2012This is another great translation of the well-known story. Galdone adds his own style and characteristics to the tale while still employing all the well known traits and plots of this fairy tale. The story of how the frog woo's the princesses into love is great for all kids.
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November 24, 2015The frog helps the princess retrieve something so the frog asks the princess something in return. I would read this to younger grade levels. I would either read this to a first grade class and below or a second grade class and below.
April 10, 2010
Five stars simply because it was a childhood favorite of mine. Still love it, even though reading it again I can see the flaws. But I care not.
March 16, 2022
Why the cruel and superficial princess ends up with a handsome prince instead of a curse on her family line for generations is beyond me.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews