FIVE GREEN AND SPECKLED FROGS

Every children’s librarian and kindergarten teacher worth their salt knows ten versions of this finger rhyme. Here five speckled frogs sit on a speckled log eating delicious bugs (out of sandwich bags); one by one they hop into the pool, where it is cool, until there are none. Burris (I Love You All Day Long, p. 1701, etc.), in her first solo effort, offers frogs that are cartoon cute, perhaps a little more frog-like than Jonathan London’s Froggy. Their bathing suits and bows indicate they are a mix of genders, but none of them seem to remember their manners; bugs fall out of their mouths in nearly every watery spread. Observant listeners will be quick to point out that in the “three” illustration only one frog is actually sitting on the log. Chalk that up to froggish summer exuberance. There is nothing innovative or particularly unique here, but toddlers especially will be drawn to the book since the frog speckles and fly wings are foil stamped. This is worth a look if you’re in need of cheery counting books, but it’s not a must. (Picture book. 1-4)