Once There Was a Bull...: Frog

Rating:
Summary: My child loves to finish the second half of the words
Review: Great concept for a book. My 2 year old daughter loves to finish the second half of the words, and she's so pleased with herself for remembering what each thing turns out to be. I was attracted to the book by its wonderful illustrations and it's western, kind of twangy, look. Excellent book for girls and boys both.

Rating:
Summary: Creative design coupled with active writing!
Review: Hedgehogs, ladybugs, and cowboys cross the path of a bullfrog searching for his lost hop in this colorful journey through the Old West, where nothing appears as it seems. The creatively designed tale integrates illustrations and text placement to continuously keep the reader expecting the unexpected. Walton crafts an interactive picture book that encourages readers to guess what will appear on the following page. For instance, he separates the final word in each sentence, such as "He looked under a hedge..." and designs an illustration to accompany the image like a representation of a hedge; yet, a turn of the page reveals a hedgehog sitting in the desert--a surprising completion to the image and compound word! The full-color illustrations use pirmay color shading rather than detail to expound on and compliment the easy flow of the text. The storybook paces itself with a single action per page supported by the clever artisitic impressions. Young readers, as well as young children with parental assistance, quickly catch onto the text pattern, attending to the endless possibilites of what may come next in the bullfrog's search for his hop. This page-turing journey of the bullfrog provides an opportunity for an interactive, high-energy read aloud as a whole class activity or as a shared reading between parent and child.