Hop onto my lily pad and listen to my review of Byron Barton's board book.
THREE PROS
*Although the story gets convoluted at times, it follows a nice progression overall
*Maybe I'm a dummy but I didn't realize that snakes eat fish -- glad I won't go through the rest of my life with this gap in food chain knowledge
*The humans set the turtle and frog free, promoting a modified version of catch-and-release
THREE CONS
*Sometimes it makes sense to recap what has happened thus far (and in certain cases it works especially well in children's fare), but the way Barton does it is extremely heavy-handed
*I know the book is all about this amphibian jumping, but I'm pretty sure frogs catch insects with their tongues and not because of the precision of the aerial acrobatics
*What exactly the kids were trying to snare in their net, I'll never know
ONE DAD'S OPINION
Nature is a dangerous place. And danger lends itself to excitement. Why do you think programming on channels like Discovery and Animal Planet does so well? So, a book on the topic should deliver a similar result. To a certain degree, JFJ! gets the job done. The timeline and pictures alone would have made this a Borrow; unfortunately, the writing drags it under the pond surface and drowns it beyond resuscitation (which comes in the form of a pretty good ending).
Buy / Borrow / DONATE / Destroy
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