Kirkus Reviews QR Code
PEEPER, FIRST VOICE OF SPRING by Robert M. McClung

PEEPER, FIRST VOICE OF SPRING

By

Pub Date: Sept. 7th, 1977
Publisher: Morrow

Could we reproduce a sample, Carol Lerner's natural-history illustration would speak directly to the knowing eye: she combines the descriptive exactitude of McClung himself with the detail, timbre, and dramatic design of Peter Parnall; here, indeed, is black-and-white with color. The icky-sticky title notwithstanding, this is the account of a year among the tree frogs and other denizens of a woodland pond--beginning with Hyla, the young male peeper's, embrace of a mate. Soon she begins to lay eggs, Hyla fertilizes them, some are devoured, some develop, and then we have the age-old story of the tadpole's transformation into a frog. Young Hyla has company, he has ""many narrow escapes""--before he and other small creatures go into hibernation to await another spring. ""Then the chorus of peepers would once again sound its coming."" The precise, near-poetic text expands in line drawings that invite discovery.