TOO MANY FROGS!
by Ann Hassett & John Hassett & illustrated by John Hassett
It's a modern-day plague of frogs.
After a basement flood and the departure of the plumber, Nana Quimby’s kitchen is overrun with frogs, coming in larger and larger armies up the basement steps. Nana Quimby seeks advice from passing children by shouting her dilemma out her window: “Too many frogs!” Each child suggests containment. “Put the frogs in a goldfish bowl,” directs the first, and after that the children recommend in turn: cups, pots and pans, the sink, the washing machine, the bathtub. Chaos creeps in with each wave of frogs, and at last Nana Quimby is at a loss to contain the final million bumping in from the basement. The solution? Fill the basement with water. The thin tale is hardly the point, though, as it provides just the right amount of structure for a series of disarmingly funny scenes of busy children calling out advice and Nana Quimby determinedly containing frogs. Warm acrylics lend a delicious coziness to the scenes of froggy mayhem in Nana Quimby’s kitchen, and the text in Garamond looks wonderfully fey next to the odd and quirky lines of the illustrations.
Young listeners will quickly memorize the story and then focus on everything else that is happening in proximity to Nana Quimby’s latest eccentric encounter with wildlife. (Picture book. 2-6)