A
Spoonful of Frogs is a fun and silly picture book about a witch on a cooking
show who is teaching her audience how to make Frog soup.
It starts out pretty
tamely, but the events soon escalate as she tries to add the key ingredient:
the frogs. The story is hilarious! It was so unexpected and had me laughing out
loud. The text is simple, but brilliant. The illustrations are gorgeous and add
the perfect old-time cooking show vibe. Both kids and adults will be grinning
through the whole book. Just pure fun!
Frogs are the most important ingredient in a witch's favorite treat-but they are also the hardest to get into the cauldron! From acclaimed author Casey Lyall and Caldecott Honor artist Vera Brosgol, A Spoonful of Frogs is a humorous and wholly original picture book-and a winning recipe for readers who loved Dragons Love Tacos and Room on the Broom.
A witch's favorite treat is frog soup. Luckily, it's healthy and easy to make. To give it that extra kick and a pop of color, the key ingredient is a spoonful of frogs. But how do you keep the frogs on…
As a writer of haiku/short-form poetry myself, this book was one that should have been on my radar long ago, but I only read it this year because of a recommendation by Kevin Rose on Tim Ferriss’s podcast. It’s a gem.
Natalie transports you to Japan with her writing to be a travel partner to her making the journey of a lifetime to pay respect to her favorite Haiku poet, Buson.
The book is beautifully written and full of moments that will make you smile, laugh, sad, and nod with approval. It’s so much more than a book of poetry; it’s a book that utilizes poetry to tackle some of life’s mystery, fragility, and beauty. She highlights the history of haiku, shows why masters such as Basho and Issa are so revered, and provides insight into writing and reading haiku.
The book is also a wonderful love letter to Japan…
One of the world’s foremost writing teachers invites readers on a joyful journey into the reading and origins of haiku
A haiku is three simple lines. But it is also, as Allen Ginsberg put it, three lines that “make the mind leap.” A good one, he said, lets the mind experience “a small sensation of space which is nothing less than God.” As many spiritual practices seek to do, the haiku’s spare yet acute noticing of the immediate and often ordinary grounds the reader in the pure awareness of now.
Natalie Goldberg is a delightfully companionable tour guide into this…
I came into the world telling stories. From the age of four you could often find me surrounded by a little cluster of friends, amusing them with a story I was spinning on the spot. When I was nine, I began telling my sisters about a Martian who was living on Earth and who loved his comfy chairs. This Martian eventually became Alou, and it has been such a joy to share his world through my picture book Alou: The Martian Agent and its sequels. One thing I’m passionate about is sparking the potent imagination bottled up inside all our little ones and I hope my books can encourage that.
There is something so charming about these two best friends. I remember pouring over their quirky tales as a small child. I loved it so much! Arnold Lobel’s masterpiece is perfectly woven with immersive watercolor pictures and hilarious, yet simple text, that even our littlest readers can grasp. It introduces the concept of personality vividly in the differences between Frog and Toad, and all in all, is one of the best ever for capturing a young imagination.
An Essential Picture Book Classics this book contains five engaging, warm and very funny stories about Frog and Toad.
A collectable classic picture book that every child should read and own. Julia Donaldson says "I hugely admire and envy Arnold Lobel; he is my hero".
Once upon a time there were two good friends, a frog and a toad...
From writing letters to going swimming, telling stories to finding lost buttons, Frog and Toad are always there for each other - just as best friends should be.
The Frog and Toad stories from Arnold Lobel have been loved by generations.…
I have always been a dog person. Sometimes, I think I am a dog whisperer, as I feel like the dogs in my life have always understood me, just like I understood them. They were often so human-like that I wondered what they did at the house when I was out. So, it didn’t take much of a leap to come up with the idea of “Dudley’s Day at Home,” where Dudley and his best cat pal, Buttercup, enjoy lots of human activities while Sam and his mother are away.
Every time I read this thoughtful book by Mo Willems, I cry. (In a good way!)
The touching story about an unusual pairing–a dog and a frog–is about friendship, acceptance, loss, and finally accepting loss. I love the sweet pictures, and I love the gentle way the author explains the life cycle through these memorable characters.
This book is truly one of the most beautiful picture books I’ve ever read.
In spring, when City Dog runs free in the country for the first time, he spots Country Frog sitting on a rock, waiting for a friend. “You’ll do,” Frog says, and together they play Country Frog games. In summer, they meet again and play City Dog games. Through the seasons, whenever City Dog visits the country he runs straight for Country Frog’s rock. In winter, things change for City Dog and Country Frog. Come spring, friendship blooms again, a little different this time.
Mo Willems’ spare, poignant text and Jon J. Muth’s expressive watercolors team up to tell a story…
As a kid, I never stopped asking “But why?” Learning the answers always led me to new questions, and I’ve been on a life-long journey to understand the world, and how everything works. I wanted to give the joy of discovery, and the empowerment of understanding, to a new generation of readers. The amazing story of evolution seemed to be a great starting point. I wrote the book I wanted to read to my own daughter, full of adventures and grown-up science, told in a way kids can understand.
A more conceptual connection to evolution, this creative book introduces the amazing fact of life and introduces young readers to the fact that all life on Earth is related. I love the way the vibrant illustrations track development from cells to creatures and show how humans, mammals, fish, reptiles, and birds are connected. With back matter to support adults to explain evolution in an age-appropriate way, this story can be a great introduction to answering the question “where do people come from?”
"This is a beautiful and important book—a reminder that humans are deeply connected with every other animal on this glorious planet." —Sy Montgomery, Naturalist and New York Times best selling author
If gills appear, will it be a fish? From fish to frogs to humans, Who Will It Be? introduces the theory of evolution, exploring connections between humans and all life on Earth.
Exploring the origin of animals from fish to frogs to humans, Who Will It Be? introduces Darwin’s theory of evolution to children with a simple, captivating story.
Vibrant illustrations and eye-catching primary colors transition the story, driving…
As the author of 10+ books in my snark-filled and magical Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus universe, I’ve had plenty of practice mixing humor and urban fantasy. I’m also addicted to British humor like Monty Python and Black Books. Sir Edgar Allan Kipling, the magical talking cat in my books is my main outlet for humor with his feline aphorisms like “pride is unbecoming to humans, only cats and dragons do it justice,” and “if you wanted sympathy, you should have adopted a dog.” It has been my joy to seek out the snort-laugh-worthiest novels, learn from them, and produce laugh-out-loud adventures for my own wonderful readers.
I’ve enjoyed all of Helen Harper’s books that I’ve read (they are all quite humorous) but I especially loved her Lazy Girl’s Guide. Slouch Witch introduces us to a powerful witch who was kicked out of magic school due to being blamed for someone else’s mistake. Now she’s dedicated to being as lazy and shiftless as possible to stay out of trouble and keep herself away from using her magic. Oh, and she has a cat who may or may not know everything that is going on, and communicates in one-word pronouncements that all cat owners can relate to. There’s a cute romance and fun book-by-book adventures to follow.
Hard Work Will Pay Off Later. Laziness Pays Off Now.
Let's get one thing straight - Ivy Wilde is not a heroine. In fact, she's probably the last witch in the world who you'd call if you needed a magical helping hand. If it were down to Ivy, she'd spend all day every day on her sofa where she could watch TV, munch junk food and talk to her feline familiar to her heart's content.
However, when a bureaucratic disaster ends up with Ivy as the victim of a case of mistaken identity, she's yanked very unwillingly into Arcane Branch,…
I expect that the folks at Shepherd.com approached me as a picture book author, since I’m the author of eleven picture books, including the four books of the Vampirina Ballerina series, which were adapted into the Disney Junior hit series Vampirina. But my thoughts and ideas about friendship and community really stem from once having been a child myself and from being a parent of four children, each of whom approached the roller coaster ride of childhood friendship in their unique ways. I was always happy to help them find answers in a book, even when those answers involved more, and deeper, questions.
Lucy Bear is determined to make a friend, but it turns out to be a harder task than she anticipated. Her efforts startle, bother, annoy, and anger the other forest animals. She’s ready to give up but in the end, she finds a perfect friend—perfect for her, that is, and isn’t that what really matters? I adore Peter Brown’s colorful, jocular illustrations and the way the answer to Lucy’s desire is presented not in the text, but in the art. For a bonus friendship lesson, check out Brown’s bio on the dust jacket.
Today is the day the exuberant Lucy is going to make a new friend! But she finds it's harder than she had thought--she accidentally ruins the giraffe's breakfast and is much too big for the frogs' pond. Just when she's about to give up, an unexpected friend finds her, and loves her just the way she is.
This heartwarming story offers a unique and humor-filled spin on the all-important themes of persistence and friendship.
I've been in love with biology since first playing with earthworms and marveling at the sprouting of radish seeds as a five-year-old. Further interest and curiosity led me to positions as nature counselor at summer camps and an eventual college degree in biology. Medical school was at times tedious, but the efficient, compact, durable mechanics of the musculoskeletal system totally engaged my interest. A residency in orthopedic surgery and a fellowship in hand surgery were natural follow-ons. My other passion is a love of teaching, taking a learner from where ever their understanding is presently and guiding them to what they need to know next. And they should have fun in the process.
Since zoologist Bill Schutt previously wrote the very popular Cannibalism, A Perfectly Natural History, you might expect that his more recent expose of the heart would be equally wide-ranging, engaging, and touched with macabre. It is.
With clarity and wit, Schutt describes circulation from worms to bats to whales along with the curious adaptations that explain why frog hearts can freeze solid and resume function and why the blood of horseshoe crabs is favored by researchers. Schutt not only describes this living pump across the animal kingdom but also through time as philosophers and scientists have pondered, and eventually discovered, its true function.
If you have an interest in biology, history of science, or your own inner workings, Pump will make your heart throb.
"Fascinating . . . Surprising entertainment, combining deep learning with dad jokes . . . [Schutt] is a natural teacher with an easy way with metaphor.”—The Wall Street Journal
In this lively, unexpected look at the hearts of animals—from fish to bats to humans—American Museum of Natural History zoologist Bill Schutt tells an incredible story of evolution and scientific progress.
We join Schutt on a tour from the origins of circulation, still evident in microorganisms today, to the tiny hardworking pumps of worms, to the golf-cart-size hearts of blue whales. We visit beaches where horseshoe crabs are being harvested for…
The world is a strange place and life can feel very weird at times, and I have long had the suspicion that a truly imaginative and inventive comedy has more to say about reality, albeit in an exaggerated and oblique way, than much serious gloomy work. Comedy has a wider range than people often think. It doesn’t have to be sweet, light, and uplifting all the time. It can be dark, unsettling and suspenseful, or profoundly philosophical. It can be political, mystical, paradoxical. There are humorous fantasy novels and short story collections that have been sadly neglected or unjustly forgotten, and I try to recommend those books to readers whenever I can.
W.E. Bowman’s comic novel, The Ascent of Rum Doodle, has achieved a cult status among mountaineers as well as aficionados of spoof adventure stories. But the sequel is much less well-known, and that’s a shame, for it is absolutely its equal in terms of humour and invention and, if anything, even more absurd and fantastical in the development of the plot, which concerns a voyage on a raft (in the manner of Thor Heyerdahl) in search of a fabled school of talking fish. I am convinced that Michael Palin’s Ripping Yarns was influenced by Bowman’s work, and if not, then this is a case of great minds thinking alike.
Having brought the highest mountain in the world to its knees, Binder, leader of the expedition to conquer Rum Doodle, soon sets off on a new adventure, aboard the raft Talking Fish. With only two cats, one frog, one oyster and five fellow-adventurers as crew, he is determined to master the challenges of the deep.
My journey as a writer began in correlation with my career as a family doctor. After reading Dr. Jacques Ferron’s, books, I knew I wanted to be an author as well as a doctor. While pursuing my medical career, I wrote medical articles and books. My husband and I have also been featured in Chicken Soup for the Soul of Quebecers with the story Witness of the Last Breath. This is the story of the last night of my daughter-in-law dying of lung cancer. Before she died, I promised Marie-Noëlle that I would pursue my writing career to change the world one young reader at a time. And I did.
It is a challenge to make a dyslexic child like reading. I recommend this book it was designed for dyslexic readers.
A special font and large space between letters help dyslexic children read easily. There are only a few of these books on the market. Children’s book editors should adapt their books for children having reading problems. This book is also very funny to read.
The well-illustrated basic plot keeps readers focused on the story. If your child likes this book, they may like the 12-chapter book series titled Here’s Hank.
Hank's class gets to take care of Principal Love's pet frog while he's away, and Hank is thrilled when he's selected to take it home for the weekend. But when he forgets to put the top back on the tank, Hank's excitement quickly turns to panic--the frog has escaped! The frog hunt is on, but time is running out. Hank needs to find that frog, and fast!
