The Frog with the Big Mouth
Kindergarten-Grade 2—The locale here, the South American rain forest, refreshes the familiar story of a loud, hyperactive frog who boasts to other denizens about eating a huge fly, then queries them on their preferred diet. The setting balances the frog's comedy with information about toucans, coatis, capybaras, and jaguars, the last of whom observes our lucky hero's jumping talents. Endnotes with a paragraph on each animal reinforce the book's educational component. Terry's shiny, verdant rain forest capably offsets myriad greens with shadows of lavender, an electric-blue beetle, and wine-red berries. The spreads swirl with movement and beckon forward via fluid lines. The Frog with the Big Mouth brims with personality as he suspends from a tiny vine or leaps from a tree branch. This is an inventive version of a long-favored tale.—Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.