Jimmy, the Pickpocket of the Palace

The Prince of the Pond #2

by Donna Jo Napoli, Judy Schachner (Illustrator)

Jimmy, the froglet son of an enchanted frog-prince, tries to save his pond from the evil witch and, in the process, find himself transformed into a human boy. Reprint.

Genres: Fantasy, Fairy Tales, Young Adult, Childrens, Fiction, Juvenile

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Donna Jo Napoli is both a linguist and a writer of children's and YA fiction. She loves to garden and bake bread, and even dreams of moving to the woods and becoming a naturalist.

At various times her house and yard have been filled with dogs, cats, birds, and rabbits. For thirteen years she had a cat named Taxi, and liked to go outside and call, "Taxi!" to make the neighbors wonder. But dear dear Taxi died in 2009.

She has five children, seven grandchildren, and currently lives outside Philadelphia. She received her BA in mathematics in 1970 and her Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures in 1973, both from Harvard University, then did a postdoctoral year in Linguistics at MIT. She has since taught linguistics at Smith College, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Georgetown University, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and Swarthmore College. It was at UM that she earned tenure (in 1981) and became a full professor (in 1984). She has held visiting positions at the University of Queensland (Australia), the University of Geneva (Switzerland), Capital Normal University of Beijing (China), the University of Newcastle (UK), the University of Venice at Ca' Foscari (Italy), and the Siena School for the Liberal Arts (Italy) as well as lectured at the University of Sydney (Australia), Macquarie University (Australia), the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa), and the University of Stellenbosch (South Africa) and held a fellowship at Trinity College Dublin. In the area of linguistics she has authored, coauthored, edited, or coedited 17 books, ranging from theoretical linguistics to practical matters in language structure and use, including matters of interest to d/Deaf people. She has held grants and fellowships from numerous sources, including the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, the Sloan Foundation.

Reviews

[Beka]

Would’ve liked more pond time, but it was still good.

[Christina]

This was a cute sequel to The Prince of the Pond, although not nearly as engaging and humorous. Where the Prince was pithy and lively, Jimmy was more drawn out with a slower pace. There is a third book in the series, but I don't know if we'll be reading it. We may have had our fill of frogs for a while.

[Eric]

I read this because my eldest brought it home from the library, saying that she had already read it. I was curious to see what she was into.

I wish i had known that this was a sequel. It seemed like there was information missing that would have made the story more interesting.

It is a cute story about the frogs of the pond who are the children of the frog prince. It is reminiscent of the rats of NIMH in this regard.

The writing has some weird jarring word use, which may be due to being aimed at 4th graders. It is a quick read, without a lot of depth. The worst part is Jimmy's lisp is very hard to read at times. I realize that he has to have a lisp or the prince would figure out the mystery too quickly, but I personally found it tiresome.

[Sarah LaCourse]

A heartfelt sequel, though the ending was much more abrupt. I was hoping for a bit more closure. But I love Napoli's writing style. She is brilliant.

[Katy Lovejoy]

The frog prince was never my favorite fairy tale. But this was an interesting

[Jennifer Heise]

Charming yet disturbing tale of Jimmy, a 'fawg' who is among the spawn of a frog that disappeared when a Prince appeared on the banks of the pond. Most readers, even without having read the previous book, will understand the connection between Daddy frog and the Prince. When the hag that cursed the prince returns to the pond for her magic ring, and threatens to dry it up unless her ring is returned (the fawgs know the prince has it), Jimmy sets off to steal it, helped by half of a curse the hag has put on him-- to turn into a human boy; but only a princess' kiss can complete the curse. Will he get the ring? will the young female frog who follows him everywhere get him into more trouble? Will he ever figure out what happened to his Daddy? Can he save the pond?
The ending is bittersweet and may disturb kids from divided families, but the story is a different and interesting take on the ending of the Frog Prince. Compare to The Frog Prince Continued

[Boqin Zhang]

This is a great book to read for fun because there are only a few characters to remember and this book is like a fairy tale or bed time story. A frog turned into a boy and the boy, Jimmy but its real name is Timmy, had to steal a magical and powerful ring from the prince. This story or fairy tale is different from any other stories because in the end, Jimmy found out that the prince was actually his long lost father. other endings for this kind of story would be that the frog stayed as a human and married the princes.

[Ayla]

I absolutely loved the Fawg Prince aka "the price of the pond". In this sequel, Jimmy one of his tadpoles, becomes a human boy after being cursed by the same hag that cursed his father and kissed by a princess. Donna Jo Napoli has a way of making us feel connected to her characters. I was hopping along with "thimmy" hoping he would be able to save his pond. And Judith Byron Schachner's illustrations were delightful. As in the last book she brings along some descriptive facts about frogs. This is a sequel to one of my favorite books, and I look forward to reading the third in this series.

[Leonela]

This book is part two of "The prince of the pond". Because i read book one, I had to read book two. If I don't I'd lose my mind over thinking what could be the next move of this story, the next path to the story. I liked it, the story of the frog prince does not end, you just haven't read it yet. If you like a good fairly tale story this one is for you. Just read the first book first.

[Tori]

2003- This book picks up where ""The Prince of the Pond"" left off. Jimmy, the prince's frog child must go to the castle where his now human father is holding the terrible hag's ring. It was mildly interesting to see Jimmy be turned into a human boy, but otherwise, this was just a boring and bittersweet story.

[Wynne]

Read my review here.

[Are]

A continuation of the frog prince. Must read the first book to really understand this one.

[Tristen]

i book of a frog that turns into a boy and finds out his dad did the same when it comes to saving the pond he sets out only to find a heart breaking discovery, it made me cry

[Holly]

The illustrations in this series are fabulous!

[Melanie]

Got this book for the images.

[Lisa]

This is a follow up to "The Prince of the Pond" and was another nice children's story.

[Tiffany-Rae Lowe]

For a kids book it was pretty good. I thought it was cute. Although halfway through I already knew what was going to happen. Good one though.

[Nancy]

I surprisingly engaging book.
Life from the frog's point of view
was a nice twist.