A FROG'S LIFE

Welcome to the wide world of frogs!

Full of frog facts, this picture book provides an inviting introduction to the life cycle, behaviors, and characteristics of frogs. Intricate, colorful illustrations of many species are featured here, accompanied by straightforward, informative text that explains how frogs breathe, shed, hunt, eat, jump, hide, reproduce, develop, and survive in their habitats. The text feels a smidge disorganized: Most spreads focus on a particular topic though only some feature headings; certain facts seem arbitrarily highlighted; and an index is included but a table of contents is not. Still, interested readers will be drawn in by the spot-on selection of facts, as in the description of how a frog sheds its skin: “The frog stretches, turns, and ‘hiccups’ to loosen its old skin and pulls it over its head like a sweater. There is a new skin ready under the old one. The old skin is full of water and nutrients…so the frog eats it!” (Readers will wish the delicately drawn accompanying illustrations showed the frog wrestling with its skin rather than standing still in three different views during the process.) Two pages of fairly dense concluding text provide information on how frogs are affected by environmental issues; a closing list of bullet points includes concrete actions kids can take to help.

A solid addition to the nature shelf.