You and your child can follow a frog around for the day, seeing all the creatures he encounters while hopping in and out of the water in this Caldecott Honor Book. Each page has just a few words in large bold print describing the action of the pond through a fun sing-song cadence created through repetition, rhyme, and alliteration. The painted pictures appear textured in some places and are brightly colored, with a backdrop of bright blues and greens. The many different animals, reptiles, and bugs are painted angularly, giving a collage-like quality to the pictures.
The frog encounters a large variety of animals and insects that readers will learn to recognize, ranging from tadpoles, minnows, turtles, geese, dragonflies, herons, and sparrows. Readers can also have a ball imitating the different creatures, "Splish, splash, paws flash" or "click, clack, claws crack." Your little one will likely generate some question about pond life, eagerly wanting to know more. At the end, you will even learn what frogs do in the winter!
I read this book to my four-year-old friend, Talmadge, and he loved the whirligig bugs the most. He thought they were beetles, which he loves to catch at home. Talmadge also liked to repeat each phrase per page after me, since the rhyming and alliteration make it fun.
--Audra
