Toad - Hardcover

Brown, Ruth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0525457577 ISBN 13: 9780525457572

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile, 1997

Synopsis

The slimey, sticky toad gets swallowed for dinner by a monster and then, surprisingly, is spat back out, in an amusing tale with rhyming text and detailed, watercolor illustrations.

About this title

About the Author

Ruth Brown is the author and illustrator of A Dark, Dark Tale (Dutton and Puffin) and other children's books. She lives in England.

Reviews

PreSchool-Grade 2. Toad is not a pretty sight. Covered with warts and filled with venom, he slithers through the primordial swamp "odorous, oozing, foul and filthy." Viewers will be intrigued by gradual glimpses of a creature who, hidden behind trailing vines and swampy terrain, is stalking the toad. When the camouflage is peeled away and the prehistoric lizardlike monster tastes his repulsive catch, he spits it out with a resounding "yuuuuuck." The freely composed art employs a spatter paint technique to convey the dripping environment and to heighten the action of the climax. From the wart-encrusted endpapers to the browns and greens of the slimy mire, the fluid watercolor illustrations aptly depict the setting. While the brief text and art are successful at conveying this somewhat odious story, its appeal will be limited to those who revel in the unappetizing side of nature.?Caroline Ward, Nassau Library System, Uniondale, NY
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gloopy, gloppy, bumpy, and lumpy: Toads provide slews of onomatopoeic opportunities for writers, and plenty of potential for artists interested in drawing warts, slime, and muck. Brown (One Stormy Night, 1993, etc.) is perfect for the task. Her text exaggerates the poor toad's noxious qualities (``odorous, oozing, foul and filthy''), denigrates his cuisine of bugs, worms, and flies, and mocks his clumsy hop. When a monster appears on the scene and attempts to gobble up the toad, readers realize just what the bumps and venom are for. ``Yuuuuuck!'' screams the monster, coughing ``the happy toad, the safe toad'' back into the swamp. Brown's paintings drip with the brown and olive colors of decaying vegetation and fetid swamp stuff. She incorporates that medium's tendency to drip and glop right into her work: Splats of paint cross the toad's bumpy back, while green webbed footprints splash across the title pages. Observant readers will spot the approaching monster long before toad does, heightening the anticipation of the inevitable--though failed--tryst. The endpapers match the amphibious decor, displaying a brocade of frog eggs. Exquisitely slimy. (Picture book. 3-6) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Ages 3^-6. Slime and muck are power in this wonderful picture-book story of a toad's natural survival in a pond. The words are funny and physical: "a clammy, sticky, gooey toad" is "covered in warts and lumps and bumps." At the same time, the watercolor spreads show the pond as an astonishingly beautiful place, with wildlife and plants that are fragile and luminous: the transparent wings of a hovering dragonfly, the glowing petals of a lily. Toad is an outsider here, odorous, oozing, foul, and filthy; and he's greedy, too, munching flies, slurping worms. What's more, he is clumsy, and he can't see too well. The pictures show a hidden creature watching toad, lying in wait for toad in the reeds, until the climactic scene when toad stumbles straight into the jaws of the predator--who spits out the slimy mouthful in disgust. Toad lives. Preschoolers will love the yucky details, the rising tension of the story and the triumph of the small outlaw, and the pictures that show the gorgeous, realistic setting for the escape adventure story. Hazel Rochman

Edition details

• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0525457577
• ISBN 13: 9780525457572
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32