Frog and Friends Readers

Unexpected surprises are always fun. I wasn’t expecting Frog & Friends: Frog’s Flying Adventure to show up on my doorstep but was glad when it did! This is the fourth book in Eve Bunting’s Frog and Friends series of readers which are published by Sleeping Bear Press.

Each book in this cute series has three chapters for the young reader. (Think Frog and Toad by Lobel, but not as choppy reading.) Eve Bunting introduces us these characters in Book One, Frog and Friends. Those friends include Rabbit, Squirrel, Possum and Raccoon and they all walk through life together in this four book series. In their latest adventures we find frog making friends with something called a Flower and accepting a ride from a seagull friend so that he can see more of the world. (In the end, he discovers his pond home is best!)

Written by Eve Bunting and illustrated by Josee Masse, these make for good early chapter books. They do include more uses of slang (e.g., “gosh”) than your classic chapter books (like Frog and Toad) which makes them feel very dated to me. Also, when I hand Frog and Toad for my son to read, he is able to do so. The sentences are short. The story is pointed. In these books by Bunting, the sentences are longer and there is more conversation within the story which can confuse a halting early reader. I’m not exactly sure where to place these stories on a reading level scale so I won’t try to. Just know that the sentences are more complex for your beginning reader.

That said Frog and Friends are a cute bunch of animals who care for one another, encourage one another and have a fair amount of adventures amongst themselves. Both of my sons – ages 6 and 3 – enjoy having these books read aloud to them at the moment. Masse did a great job bringing Bunting’s characters to life and we’ll go on enjoying their presence for awhile, no doubt.

Thanks to Sleeping Bear Press for sending a copy of Frog & Friends: Frog’s Flying Adventure in exchange for my honest opinion.

Other books in the series include:

Carrie blogs about books she read with her kids, as well as books she reads all by her grown-up self over at Reading to Know.