I admit it—I am an enormous fan of Lobel’s Frog and Toad series.  I still chant lines from about willpower from the “Cookies” story, I cite Frog’s desire to be alone as different from lonely, and I empathize with their kite flying endeavors.  As a result, I was very excited to see that Lobel’s daughter, Adrianne Lobel, was publishing some new material that her father had created.

While a slight volume, “The Frogs and Toads All Sang” is a delight.  These poems and rhymes foreshadow THE Frog and Toad from the later books.  Miss Frog clearly lacks the willpower that I mentioned above, when she shoos off the little frogs and eats her buns “all herself.”  Each poem has a vibrancy and character that is strong and entertaining:  one frog wishes he could play the clarinet instead of the violin, one jumps for the moon, and some cool their feet in lemonade.  These are poems that children will love to memorize and chant.

Adrianne Lobel has used water colors to enliven her father’s original drawings.  (She explains her process in her introduction.)  In these drawings, we can see these ancestors of the later characters nearly jump off the page in their energy and joy.

I highly recommend this book.  I can’t wait to buy a copy for my school library so that I can introduce these poems to our students.