LILLIANA AND THE FROGS

A little girl with a fondness for chorus frogs discovers how elusive they can be.

Lying in her frog-themed bedroom at night, Lilliana loves listening to the chorus frogs singing outside. Like Lilliana, chorus frogs are very small, and they are tricky to locate when she searches for them. Spying the teeny frogs hiding under leaves, she eventually traps them in a large jar and takes them inside, where she places them in a flat box covered with chicken wire. Before Lilliana realizes it, however, the fast-moving, tiny frogs escape. Suddenly, to her parents’ dismay, chorus frogs are croaking loudly and jumping around everywhere. The spare text reiterates how small, hard to catch, and loud chorus frogs can be, so readers will be surprised to discover how Lilliana solves her dilemma. Drawn loosely in squiggly, energetic black outlines washed with fluid greens, blues, yellows, and tans, the lively, detailed illustrations will delight and invite readers to join Lilliana’s search, indoors and outdoors, for the wily, wee chorus frogs. Double-page aerial views reveal Lilliana’s diminutive, red-haired, frog-loving, wellie-wearing figure scouring woods and fields with her companion dachshund as she learns an important lesson in natural animal habitats. Endpapers reveal the chorus frog’s life cycle, and an author’s note adds personal perspective. Lilliana’s mom presents White, and her dad has brown skin and dark hair; Lilliana herself has pale skin and her mom’s red hair.

An amusing, animated, charming tale for fledgling naturalists.