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Frog and Friends


Frog and Friends 
By Eve Bunting
Sleeping Bear Press, c2011. Easy reader.

 This is the first in Eve Bunting’s new series. It features three short chapters and is great for new readers who aren’t ready for longer chapter books. This is my pick for the Geisel award this year because it has just the right touch of humor, age appropriate text, and nice illustrations. The first chapter is my favorite, in which Frog and his pond friends wake up to find a big, orange, thing with a tail floating in the pond. They argue whether it is a hippo egg, a big bubble, or a humongous seed, and finally decide it is just a THING. The thing is actually a balloon. Frog grabs on to its tail, and gets carried off into the wind. It hits a tree branch and pops. Frog and friends give the thing a somber funeral, lamenting that they will never know what it was.

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