The Frog Prince, Continued

The Frog Prince, Continued was written by Jon Scieszka and illustrated by Steve Johnson.  This story is the continuation of The Princess and the Frog.  Some people may think they know the true ending to the story, but they didn’t live happily ever after.  The princess is tired of the prince’s froggy ways and the prince is tired of the princess always nagging him.  One day he gets fed up and runs away to find his happy ending.  He meets up with three witches along the way who give him advice, but in the end, does the prince get his happy ending?

The Frog Prince, Continued is another great example of a fractured fairy tale based on the story The Princess and the Pea.  According to the textbook, Literature and the Child, on page 15, it explains that folklore, another name for fairy tale, is composed of stories that have been passed down from generation to generation, by word of mouth.  The story has no known author.  Folklore comes in many different forms, including rhymes, fairy tales, fables, and many more.  Fractured fairy tales are explained in further detail on page 198 of the textbook.  It states that many authors have created their own literary fairy tales which are stories patterned after traditional tales.

This story is recommended for ages 6 and up.  I would agree with this.  The story line is fun but some of the illustrations throughout the book are dark and dreary and they might frighten littler children.  The story is written in a really easy way that makes the story easy to understand. 

When including this book into your classroom, I would suggest you include the following activities:

1.  Have students look at each witch that is included in the story.  Ask students to write a description of a horrible witch of their own.  They should describe how she looks and how she behaves.  Then have children draw a portrait of their witch and display the portraits and descriptions around the classroom.

2.  For a science project, break students into three groups.  Have one group research the frog life cycle.  Have another group find out where frogs live and what they eat.  The last group can find out about different kinds of frogs.  Have groups create an informational poster describing their findings.

3.  Have students perform this story by doing a reader’s theater.  Here is a great script for this project.

READER RESPONSE QUESTIONS:
1. What do you think the frog prince’s “worse” thoughts are while he was a carriage?

2. How do you think the princess will feel about being a frog?

3.  How can you change the ending of this book to make it become “happily ever after”?

REFERENCES:
Galda, L., Cullinan, B. E., & Sipe, L. R. (2011). Literature and the child. (7th ed. ed.). Belmont: Wadsworth Pub Co.

Scieszka. (1991). The frog prince, continued. New York, New York: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated.

The Frog Prince Continued activity guide. Retrieved from http://www.liveoakmedia.com/client/guides/24905.pdf

The Frog Prince website and resources for the classroom.  Retrieved from http://rileycenter.msstate.edu/pdf/frog-prince.pdf