FROG LEGS

A collection of 24 deliberately silly poems illustrated with dancing, prancing, and hopping frogs. The poems are amusing and cute and full of wordplay. “Uh-oh. MUD. SO? / Slide a slicker slip step. / Stomp a sloppy plop step. / Covered head-to-toe step. / Dance until you’re dry!” Some rhyme, some don’t, and one, “Jumpabet,” a jump rope rhyme, is shaped in an arc like a long jump rope. The problem is that after a while, the poems begin to seem awfully alike. While they’re full of movement and action, there is really no focus to the collection. They are not really about frogs (except for the one about catching flies with your tongue) but are about things children do, like playing hopscotch, trick-or-treating, ice-skating, and square dancing. The illustrations, painted with acrylics, consist of anthropomorphic frogs with spindly legs and arms in a wide variety of unlikely poses, but again, they become repetitive, with each illustration seeming too much like the one before. The images are amusing enough, but not clever enough to sustain the reader through 24 poems. The palette is oddly drab, with dull greens, blues, and pinks predominating. Not an essential choice for one’s collection, but a nice book for kids who love frogs and nonsense poetry. (Picture book/poetry. 5-8)