TOAD ON THE ROAD

Little toads should never play in the road!

A little toad carelessly squats in the middle of the road hungrily watching a fly buzz by. “Who’s that coming down the road? / Oh yikes! Oh yikes! / It’s a… // Bear on a bike! / Everyone shout: / Look out! Look out! // SKID! SCREECH! BAM!” Bear and bike end up in a ditch, and the bear yells at the little toad. What would its mama say? Unsurprisingly, the little toad does not listen, and soon along comes a top-hatted croc in a car…and there’s another crash. Both animals admonish the amphibian to no avail. Along comes a vole in a van (in the picture, it looks an awful lot like Jerry Garcia driving a VW microbus), and it too goes “BAM!” When, finally, along comes mother toad in a tow truck, readers hear “Hey, little love, get out of the way! / You could get hurt. That’s no place to play.” A musician as well as a writer and illustrator, Shaskan pens a tale that begs to be sung, and it’s likely audiences will soon pick up the tune. The call-and-response construction of the tale will lend itself well to performing for preschoolers. The bright, heavily lined, digitally created illustrations resemble block prints and feature smiling (or shouting) big-eyed animals in full-bleed, double-page spreads.

A catchy, cautionary tale.