Follow That Frog!
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
When a curiously croaking stranger comes knocking at the door, Aunt Josephine launches into a rambling tale about her lifelong pursuit of a rare giant frog.
Eccentric Aunt Josephine poignantly ignores a stranger knocking at her door as she tells her niece Sadie the story of her time in the jungles of Peru, cataloguing amphibians for the scientific team of Admiral Rodriguez. When the admiral's son was suddenly swallowed by a giant frog, Aunt Josephine gave chase in a journey which took her around the world.
In the tradition of Philip Stead and Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell's previous collaborations Special Delivery and The Only Fish in the Sea, this is a story full of rambunctious fun and sensationally appealing artwork.
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this collaboration by the creators of Special Delivery, intrepid pilot Sadie turns the spotlight over to her aunt Josephine, a bonneted dowager whose intrepid spirit is undimmed by age. She's still in bed when a loud knock sounds on the door one morning. "It could be a vacuum salesman," Aunt Josephine calls from under her quilt. "Or more likely, a suitor. But I tell you this! I am quite satisfied with the state of my carpets. And my days of romance are but a memory." (Stead excels at this particular brand of palaver.) This reminds her, naturally, of the giant frog that swallowed an admiring admiral's son when she was "blissfully bivouacked in the jungles of Peru" in her youth. Feeling obliged to catalog the frog if not to save the boy she chases it across the world, visiting the Canary Islands (littered with small yellow birds) and the Taj Mahal, accumulating a menagerie of companions along the way. Cordell's loopy, frenetic drawings savor her journey's every inanity: sailing a bathtub, riding a whale. The waning British Empire tone of Stead's story bears a family resemblance to Hoban's Captain Najork books, and the punch line feels a bit abrupt. Still, any vehicle for Cordell's sweet-tempered mayhem is a treat. Ages 4 8.