So You Want to Be a Frog
Jane Porter and Neil Clark
Walker Books

In her follow-up to So You Want to Be an Owl, author Jane Porter presents what it takes to be a frog. Should you decide to give it a try, you may be surprised to learn that it requires a considerable number of skills; so says Frog Club leader, Fabio Frog. Happily he is on hand to provide support and information via a set of rules..

First off, (remember there are several stages in your life-cycle) you will need to work on your wriggling. Then, once you’ve lost that tail, jumping is an important way of moving and your tongue becomes a vital part of your anatomy – it’s very useful for catching flies. Did you know, that should you manage to catch a fly, your eyeballs will push the food down your throat? Although if slugs are more appealing, they’re another live option (no self-respecting frog would eat anything already dead).

You’ll also need to be able both to breathe underwater (there’s a fuzzy-looking Hairy Frog’ that has hairs to help) and ‘drink through your skin’.

Colour is another consideration – not all frogs are green like Fabio, although there are a fair few green species in various parts of the world. Others though don’t even live in ponds: a few are desert dwellers, others high in the branches of tropical trees.

Quite a number are poisonous too, so beware.

As always Jane Porter’s love of nature shines through in her writing, which is highly engaging and fun for young readers. Cleverly integrated with the text are Neil Clark’s amusing, detailed illustrations. A considerable amount of verbal and visual information is to be found between the pages of this non-fiction picture book. One last word or several: croaking and ribbiting are not the only froggy sounds, but to discover other possibilities, you’ll need to get your own front limbs on a copy of Jane and Neil’s book.