The Frogs and Toads All Sang
Starred Review. PreSchool-Grade 2—Mischievous, warmhearted, silly, and touching, this short collection of stories in rhyme trips easily off the tongue in true Arnold Lobel style. In playful fashion, they feature Miss Frog baking pies and sugar buns, two lazy toads contemplating the night, a bright green frog playing the violin, a school for squirming polliwogs, and an adventurous jumper—often with a surprise-ending twist. A poem about a frog party, for example, concludes with: "They danced in the meadow/They danced in the street/They danced in the lemonade/Just to cool their feet." Adrianne Lobel, a set designer by profession, catches just the right mood in applying frothy, airy colors to her father's line art. A short introduction reveals how the collection came to be some 20 years after Lobel's death. This delectable combination of word and image is a treat not to be missed.—Barbara Elleman, Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Amherst, MAEND