Growing Frogs - Vivian French

Illustrated by Alison Bartlett
Candlewick, 2000
Paper $6.99
32 pages
"Read and Wonder" series
ages 5-8
Excellent book

Ever since Brendan's ranger-led Acadia National Park frog adventure, I've been checking out books about frogs. In this book it is springtime and a little girl and her mother find frog spawn at the pond. They take it home to watch the amazing changes fron egg to tadpole to frog.

Not only is this a story, it's an excellent easy how-to guide so kids --- with their parent's help --- can watch these magical changes themselves.

How often do you change the pond water? What happens next? What should you do when they become frogs?

The illustrations are full-page, brightly colored acrylics. The large "Tapioca" font tells the story, smaller font gives the info.

Oh would I love to do this! But the book itself is all you need to easily learn LOTS of neat things about frogs.

city dog, country frog - Mo Willems

Illustrated by Jon J. Muth
Hyperion Books for Children, 2010
56 pages
$17.99
"ages 4-7"
Rating: 5
Endpapers: Green watercolor splash in front, orange and blue on two back papers.

Ok. Cool book. When I was in Maine, Bren and I , after reading Dory Story, talked a lot about the web of life and life cycles. I'd love to read this to him and hear the clever thoughts and connections his inquisitive five-year-old mind would come up with.

This story goes through all the seasons, beginning with spring and ending with spring again. City dog has never been able to run without a leash, and since his move to the country he can run freely. In spring, he makes friends with a frog. They continue to be friends through the seasons. We see the seasons change, and we know what eventually happens to the frog.

This is a gentle reminder of the cycle of life, oh so creatively presented.

I'm really glad that Mo Willems didn't illustrate this. Jon Muth's illustrations are stunning watercolors. This is an outstanding book.

And.......I cannot believe this is my 700th blog.

Sloppy Joe - Dave Keane

Illustrated by Denise Brunkus

Harper, 2009

$16.99

Rating: 4.5

Endpapers: Lime green

"Mom says I'm the first kid in history to take a school picture with gum stuck in his hair.

You can barely notice."

I adore the way the Denise Brunkus illustrates this book and I love this kid-the way he looks, the way he acts, the way he thinks. When he decides to work really hard not to be sloppy anymore, he really tries - but you can imagine how successful he is. He's "all boy" -- as well as cute, caring, and funny. His jokes are corny, his intentions are valiant. He has character. and -- frogs, frogs everywhere! Quite delightful.

A great book for character develoopment.

Bad Frogs - Thacher Hurd

For: Young Kids
2009
$15.99
Rating: 2.5
Endpapers: Chartreuse

Great rhyme and rhythm., bright greens and purples, and lots and lots of frogs (they've counted them - they say there are 170!) live and act like kids. But bad? I wouldn't say bad. I might say naughty. A bit of a difference.

"Making bad noises at the dinner table/Smelling yucky. Talking crummy./Wearing bad hats. Wearing dark glasses./Staying up late./ Kissing their girlfriends,,,," Perfect for little guys, with really fun illustrations of frogs dressed as kids doing all sorts of things.

There's a wonderful two-page spread ("Bad frogs. Very bad frogs.") where the frogs are painting and splashing paint all over the page. It's really cool - I'd love a poster of it -

Tadpole Rex - Kurt Cyrus

For: School-age kids
Published: 2008
Ratng: 3.5
Read: Nov. 1st, 2008
Endpapers: medium olive (both prehistoric AND froggy...)

A swamp is born in prehistoric dinosaurland, and in the swamp a puddle, and in the puddle a polliwog. Rex the poliwog. We watch him grow to be a full-fledged frog. Written in couplets, quite cleverly rhymed, the large 10 X 12 pages have no hint of white, only strong greens and swampy colors from edge to edge of the page. So many great greens! The illustrations are done on scratchboard and colored digitally - that sounds so modern and techy! I've no clue what they're talking about. Very sophisticated word choices....I'd certainly use it with my middle schoolers if the need for a prehistoric or frog study ever came up. A sample:

Primeval puddles were desperate places
Of ambush and panic and life-or-death chases