The Frog and Toad Collection Box Set (I Can Read Book 2) (Paperback)

~ (Author, Illustrator)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Frog and Toad are always there for each other -- just as best friends should be. From sledding in winter to eating ice cream on hot summer days, these two friends have fun together the whole year round!

About the Author

During his distinguished career Arnold Lobel wrote and/or illustrated over 70 books for children. To his illustrating credit, he had a Caldecott Medal book -- Fables (1981) -- and two Caldecott Honor Books-his own Frog and Toad are Friends (1971) and Hildilid's Night by Cheli Duran Ryan (1972). To his writing credit, he had a Newbery Honor Book -- Frog and Toad Together (1973). But to his greatest credit, he had a following of literally millions of young children with whom he shared the warmth and humor of his unpretentious vision of life.

Though he was a born storyteller -- he began making up stories extemporaneously to entertain his fellow second-graders in Schenectady, New York, where he grew up in the care of his grandparents. Mr. Lobel called himself a "lucky amateur" in terms of his writing. Viewing himself as a professionally trained illustrator (he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Pratt Institute), he said, "I know how to draw pictures. With writing, I don't really know what I'm doing. It's very intuitive."

In addition to the Frog and Toad books, Owl at Home, Mouse Tales, The Book of Pigericks, and many other popular books he created, Mr. Lobel also illustrated other writers' texts that captured his fancy. He viewed this as "something different and challenging." Often his illustrations for those books showed a different aspect of his personality and his artistic expertise, ranging from his meticulous dinosaurs in Dinosaur Time by Peggy Parish to his chilling pen-and-ink drawings in Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep by Jack Prelutsky, about which Booklist wrote, "Young readers will be amazed that the gentle Lobel of Frog and Toad fame can be so comfortably diabolic."

In 1977 Mr. Lobel and his wife, Anita, a distinguished children's book author and artist in her own right, collaborated on their first book, How the Rooster Saved the Day, chosen by School Library Journal as one of the Best Books of the Year, 1977. They then collaborated on three more books, A Treeful of Pigs, a 1979 ALA Notable Book; On Market Street, a 1982 Caldecott Honor Book; and The Rose in My Garden, a 1984 Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor Book.

Arnold Lobel died in 1987.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Paperback
• Publisher: HarperCollins (May 25, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060580860
• ISBN-13: 978-0060580865
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,051 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great stories!, May 13, 2008

By	Michael Hill - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The collection consists of 3 books - Frog and Toad All Year, Frog and Toad Are Friends, and Frog and Toad Together. My 8 year old nephew who has reading difficulties loves these books. He now shows an interest in reading. Please keep up with the stories Mr. Lobel!

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect children's fiction, January 6, 2006

By	J. Miller (LA, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The Frog and Toad series are the perfect classic for young children who are just old enough to read.

What makes the work so charming is that one can buy a brand new copy of it, and immediately it is like a pair of comfortable old shoes or a warm, over-worn sweater. Frog and Toad are friends, the kind of homey, down-to-earth friendship we all depend on. They are not flashy, bright, or cartoony. The pictures are a dull and easy brown and green, but capture cute variations in emotion between these two characters. They fit the ethos of the book: comfortable, casual, understated, and something you immediately want more of.

They capture the heroism and fears of a five year old. They are right on the mark for a young person who is just beginning to be able to comfort someone who is lonely or do battle with an overwhelming craving for cookies. Frog and Toad are two simple, helpless creatures who help one another through things that seem big to a child and unnoticeable to an adult. They worry about the things a five year old worries about. Parent readers will find themselves wanting to help Frog and Toad get by the way we help our own five-year-olds.

Lobel has noticed exactly what a child notices. He's gotten it just right.

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great on two levels--for beginning readers and for toddlers, November 26, 2006

By	Nicholas Dujmovic (Vienna, Virginia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

For your beginning readers, these heartwarming stories of a child-like friendship between Frog and Toad are excellent, a fine complement to the Little Bear series, for example.

For the toddler being read to, these books also provide great delight. This daddy loves to read Toad's voice as a deep, slightly daft Englishman, while Frog's voice is, naturally, an outrageous French one. (It works--try it!) The stories are charming, affirm praiseworthy values (above all friendship), and are short enough to gauge your evening ritual precisely.

Highly recommended.