The Great Frog Race and Other Poems [School & Library Binding]

Kristine O'Connell George (Author), Kate Kiesler (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up

A fresh collection of twenty-eight poems about a girl living in the country.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 3-6. Atmospheric paintings and crystal-clear imagery uncover the magic and dreams of ordinary things, from polliwogs to a spring wind to a garden hose.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 4^-6, younger for reading aloud. Outdoors at night under a full moon, children gather to watch captured frogs race. A girl sniffs the air in September: "It smells / Spicy. Sharp. / Like freshly sharpened pencils." The words capture children playing out their lives: throwing water balloons, hovering over pollywogs in a shallow pond, listening to Canada geese flying overhead. Both the picture-book format and the poetry in this collection are wonderfully enticing. George's astute imagery pairs beautifully with Kiesler's rich, warm-toned oil paintings to impart a strong sense of the pleasures of rural landscape--wide-plowed furrows, "straight as fork tines that / stretch to the horizon"; a weeping willow that sighs, droops, sags, and finally weeps "piles of tears for me to rake." Unifying the collection is the story of a young girl. Sometimes she is like every young child; at other times she exposes fragile, very personal feelings, as when she stands in front of her music class: "My heart hears every note, / yet my song is locked / inside my throat." And woven through all is the strong affirmation that being different from everybody else is something special indeed. Karen Morgan

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• School & Library Binding: 48 pages
• Publisher: Clarion Books (March 17, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395776074
• ISBN-13: 978-0395776070
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,399,731 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quirky, poignant, and warm, October 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Great Frog Race and Other Poems (School & Library Binding)

Quiddle with words, swing to the tree tops with ghosts, jump and giggle with frogs. Kristine O'Connell George must surely be a sprite who has a pixie philosophy seasoned with an empathic maturity. Kids love these poems and so do I! Read them aloud, one a night, little gifts for your child to imagine just before sleep. The Kate Kiesler illustrations light up the page and capture attention.

This book is a must buy!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful thing happened to me as I read this!, September 1, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Great Frog Race and Other Poems (School & Library Binding)

A wonderful thing happened to me as I read Kristine O'Connell George's poems. I discovered a younger, quirkier me--the child I once was. There she was, taking the time to talk to a tree, to notice the polliwogs, "stubby as toes", to stand in the rain's "strands of wet thread". And there she was again, dreaming of "wind in my hair" atop an old nag that wasn't going anywhere.

I like to remember myself as a kid who saw life and movement and humor in the most surprising of places. Surely that was Kristine George, too. Even now she doesn't think it's odd to imagine the "strong-jawed grin" of a monkey wrench or the loyalty of an old metal bucket, or the dreams of the garden hose as it "wonders what to be when it grows up". Maybe if Kristine and I had been best friends then, or if I'd had this lovely, compassionate, dream-affirming book, I'd have taken the time to write more poems. I would have been inspired to "quiddle" with words and images that gave me pleasure. And that's just what the poet invites her readers to do.

Every time I read this book I marvel at the perfection of the poetic images. My ear takes pleasure in the music of the words. I am drawn into the lush, evocative paintings by Kate Kiesler.

But best of all, there's The Great Frog Race of my childhood, "over quickly", but recaptured beautifully in this book

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars enthralling poems of childhood discovery. A must read!, April 25, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Great Frog Race and Other Poems (School & Library Binding)

a wonderful roller coaster ride for both children andadults. you will be enthralled as you read these beautiful poems ofchildhood discovery,written with beautiful and heart tugging imagery, humor, and prose. Run and add to your shopping cart.