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FROG AND TOAD ARE FRIENDS

Name: FROG AND TOAD ARE FRIENDS
Author: Arnold Lobel
ISBN: 0064440206

illustrated by Arnold Lobel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1979

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A leggy green frog and a squat green toad do for friendship something of what Little Bear does for kinship. Come April Toad's reluctance to end his long winter nap ("A little more sleep will not hurt me") prompts lonesome Frog to pull off the calendar pages one by one until he reaches stay-awake May. Then there's "The Story" Toad can't think up when Frog is sick which becomes the story—of how Toad made himself sick standing on his head and hitting it against a wall trying—told him by a recovered Frog. "A Lost Button" turns up at home after Frog has found every button but for Toad (who makes suit-able amends). But the best is yet to come—in Toad's anxiety that he looks funny in his bathing suit (which keeps him shivering in the water) and his brusque "Of course I do" when Frog and the others laugh. At the last, affectingly if more predictably, is "The Letter" that Frog writes to Toad so he'll get some mail. . . and sends by snail. Imperfect friendship or it wouldn't be true—and most perfectly expressed in their faces.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1979

ISBN: 0064440206

Page Count: 68

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1970

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
THE TURNAROUND WIND
illustrated by Arnold Lobel

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THE RANDOM HOUSE BOOK OF MOTHER GOOSE
by Arnold Lobel

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THE ROSE IN MY GARDEN
by Arnold Lobel & illustrated by Anita Lobel

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CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

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A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.

Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: March 16, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random

Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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LITTLE BLUE TRUCK'S SPRINGTIME

From the Little Blue Truck series

by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by Jill McElmurry ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 2, 2018

Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come.

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Little Blue Truck and his pal Toad meet friends old and new on a springtime drive through the country.

This lift-the-flap, interactive entry in the popular Little Blue Truck series lacks the narrative strength and valuable life lessons of the original Little Blue Truck (2008) and its sequel, Little Blue Truck Leads the Way (2009). Both of those books, published for preschoolers rather than toddlers, featured rich storylines, dramatic, kinetic illustrations, and simple but valuable life lessons—the folly of taking oneself too seriously, the importance of friends, and the virtue of taking turns, for example. At about half the length and with half as much text as the aforementioned titles, this volume is a much quicker read. Less a story than a vernal celebration, the book depicts a bucolic drive through farmland and encounters with various animals and their young along the way. Beautifully rendered two-page tableaux teem with butterflies, blossoms, and vibrant pastel, springtime colors. Little Blue greets a sheep standing in the door of a barn: “Yoo-hoo, Sheep! / Beep-beep! / What’s new?” Folding back the durable, card-stock flap reveals the barn’s interior and an adorable set of twin lambs. Encounters with a duck and nine ducklings, a cow with a calf, a pig with 10 (!) piglets, a family of bunnies, and a chicken with a freshly hatched chick provide ample opportunity for counting and vocabulary work.

Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come. (Board book. 1-4)