Review of "The Frog That Lost His Croak," by Anne Toole

Review of

The Frog That Lost His Croak, by Anne Toole, ISBN 9781478764137

Five out of five stars

 At first the little frog is a nonstop croaker and braggart, croaking all day and night and telling everyone how wonderful his croaking was. However, nature takes its course and eventually he loses his voice due to overuse. Yet, now that he is silent the frog can hear all the other sounds that are being made, such as the crickets chirping and the birds singing. This makes him realize that the world is a far more interesting place than he ever thought and when his croak returns he no longer dominates the background noise of his environment.

  The text of the story is a basic pattern of rhyming, the lines are in groups of two that rhyme. The level of the text is at most the second grade, so children at that level can read it themselves. Since children love simple rhymes, it is a story that younger children will enjoy having read to them, especially if there is some proper inflection in the reader’s voice.

 The structure is the text on the right, ten lines per page, with the associated image on the left. The illustrations are colorful with sharp contrasts, yet the coloration is soft. There are many pretty flowers in the images, the frog and his companions live in a lively spring setting.

 The moral of the story is valuable and in a form that the young reader will understand. It is a good story for a preschool group, bedtime story or for a child to read on their own.

This book was made available for free for review purposes.