Common Sense Note
Realistic illustrations with expressive text are sure to keep children's interest.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Sally Snyder
One of the Animals Lives series, this title introduces readers to the fundamentals of frog life. Children will be fascinated by hatching tadpoles, the development into froglets, and the list of predators frogs must avoid. Although this is a nonfiction book, it is so engaging that it seems, at times, like a story.
The illustrations are warm and inviting, and show many details, including the splotches of darker brown color and the small bumps on an adult frog's body. One illustration shows the frog's "long, sticky tongue" frozen in motion, just as it has caught a fly.
However, the first of two pages, discussing a frog's croak, shows the male with a very small bulge in his throat. The next page states that "the pouch in his throat puffs up like a tiny balloon ... ." Unfortunately, the artist chose to illustrate this page with the male facing away from the reader. Children will be disappointed not to see the full-blown puff.
Growing Frogs, by Vivian French, tells of a mother and daughter who collect frog eggs from the pond, watch them develop into frogs, and return them to the pond. Wendy Pfeffer's From Tadpole to Frog gives basic facts about the frog's life cycle.
From The Book
The tadpoles grow rapidly from day to day, and before long, they start to lose their familiar slippery shape. They sprout miniature back legs, fully jointed and froglike, with tiny webbed feet. Lungs develop inside their small bodies, and smooth, new skin covers the gills they no longer need.
Plot Summary:
What's a frog's life like? Eating worms, escaping hedgehogs, croaking to find a mate. Realistic illustrations and expressive text keep readers leaping through the pages as they follow the early life cycle of the common European frog from tadpole to froglet.
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