Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This is a nice book with attractive artwork that describes the two-year life cycle of the American Bullfrog. As a Stage One book "From Tadpole to Frog" uses simple sentences and concepts that are appropriate for toddlers, preschoolers, and young children up to about 8 or 9 years of age.
Besides a description of the Bullfrog lifecycle, and the 'where Bullfrogs can be found' map, there are pictures with brief descriptions of 5 other frogs, including the Leopard, Pickerel, Wood, Spring Peeper, and Gray Tree frogs.
Four Stars. Good artwork on every page. The color runs from edge to edge. Okay Read-aloud. The Bullfrog is interesting as even the tadpoles hibernate for one year. Nothing objectionable in my opinion; although I should note above that there is a brief mention of reproduction. [I mention this as some parents have concerns and have told me they appreciate such notes.] The book, in any case, says the following about frog reproduction:
At night you hear "Ba-ra-rooom... ba-ra-
room... ba-ra-rooom...". The males are calling
to their mates.
The female hear the call.
The male hugs his mate. He fertilizes her eggs as
she lays them in the water. Thousands of soft
jelly-covered eggs cling together in the cool water.
The artwork shows the frogs hugging, and neither art nor wordage was inappropriate or graphic, in my opinion. Certainly my children didn't think anything of it.
The AR reading level is given as 1.6 which means this is a book for a child in the second half of the first grade. While professionally assessed, this mom thinks quite a few first graders will need some help because of the vocabulary. More difficult words include: hibernate, thousands, whistle, creatures, stretching, fertilizes, speckled, and capture. Words they might not be familiar with are: mate, female, male, breathe, gills, and cling.
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Wendy Pfeffer describes the amazing metamorphosis from tiny, jellylike egg, to little fishy tadpole, to great big bullfrog. Holly Keller has created the archetypal frog pond and we see it through the seasons as the tadpoles grow legs and lungs and eventually hop onto land: bullfrogs at last. "Well-designed ink drawings washed with soft-toned watercolors stretch across the double-page spreads, showing the action above and below water level. . . .an attractive, general introduction."-BL. 1994 "Pick of the Lists" (ABA)Best Children's Science Books, 1994 (Science Books and Films)
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