All About Frogs

All About...

by Jim Arnosky

A thorough and colorful introduction to frogs by renowned naturalist Jim Arnosky.

From tadpole to frog, Jim Arnosky shows and tells kids how frogs grow and live. Big bullfrogs and tiny spring peepers, vivid tropical frogs and bronze swamp frogs spring from the pages of the book. Kids will learn why frogs can jump so far, what they eat and what eats them, the correct way to handle a frog, and how to recognize frogs by the sounds they make. And there is some information about toads, too!

This is the seventh book in the aaclaimed All About series. It will appeal to every young naturalist.

Genres: Picture Books, Nonfiction, Science, Childrens, Animals, Nature

26 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2002

About the author

Jim Arnosky was born in New York City, NY Sept 1, 1946. He was raised in Pennsylvania. Jim graduated from high school in Philadelphia and joined the US Naval Reserves. His active duty took him to Maryland and Bremerhaven, Germany.

In 1976 Jim and his wife Deanna moved to Vermont with their two daughters where they have lived in an old farmhouse for the past 28 years. 17 of those years were spent raising sheep.

Jim is self taught in writing, art and the natural sciences. He has written and illustrated 86 books on nature subjects and has illustrated 46 other books written by various authors. He has been awarded the Christopher Medal, Orbis Pictus Honor, ALA Gordon Award, and Outstanding Science book awards from National Science Teachers Associations.

Jim loves to fish, boat, and play his guitar. In his work, he uses a Betacam SP video camcorder with a 1600 mm lens to record the wildlife he and Deanna find all across the country.

Reviews

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picture-book author and artist Jim Arnosky turns to the world of amphibian life in this seventh entry in his All About... series, intended to highlight different categories of animal. Focusing here on frogs, he discusses the differences between frogs and toads, the many different kinds of frog - there are more than one thousand frog species, worldwide - and their anatomy, feeding habits and reproductive cycle. Despite the many predators that hunt them, frogs are very resilient, and Arnosky concludes with the hope that they will continue to be plentiful, in the years to come...

Pairing an informative and engaging text with gorgeously colorful illustrations done in acrylic paint, All About Frogs is a worthy addition to this series, and is sure to please young children who are interested in this amphibian life form. I learned a few new things myself - I didn't realize that only male frogs made sounds, in order to attract the females - and I revisited other topics, such as metamorphosis, that I found particularly fascinating as a youngster. My only critique of the book, and it is one that I have with all of the titles in this series, is that there is no list of sources, or of further reading ideas. Leaving that aside, this is one I would recommend to all young animal lovers, and to anyone seeking quality works of natural history for the picture-book set.

[Darin Johnston · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could give this book 5 stars based on the illustrations alone, I would in a heartbeat! However, the information in this book is great too! We learn some anatomy about frogs, how they breathe, what they eat, and other interesting facts. Finally, there are diagrams of why they sound different, and what those calls mean. A great book about frogs!

[Alyson Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

All About Frogs is about everything that makes up a frog. This includes, where frogs live, what they eat, how big they are and more. It is very informational and has a lot of pictures to help elaborate the text. I would recommend my students use this book for a project about frogs.

[Kiersten Koch · Rating 4 out of 5]

"All About Frogs" is an informational book about the different types and species of frogs. It discusses where they live, what they eat, and the composition of their bodies. This book would be useful during a frog unit where students can grow a frog from an egg to a full frog.

[Lynn Davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting book of information about - and wonderful illustrations of - frogs.

[Beka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great illustrations and including real life sizes. Very informative but not overwhelming for children

[Anchi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Illustration is fantastic. A great book for all ages to learn about frogs, the amphibian.

[Trace Guidry · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Courtney Ennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This informational book is about frogs and how they live their lives. It starts out with identifying what type of animal a frog is. Frogs are amphibians, which are animals that begin life in water as tadpoles. Toads and salamanders are also amphibians. They develop limbs and lungs so they can eventually live on land. Frogs will sometimes sit on lily pads on top of the water. They also live on every continent except Antarctica and there are more than one thousand species of frogs. They can be identified by their color and its markings. All frogs are different and unique in their own way. There are different types of frogs such as tree frogs, which are small and slender with large sticky toe pads for climbing. There are usually more tree frogs in Central and South America than any other place on Earth. The book also talks about the body of the frog and how their heads are wide to accommodate a big mouth. They also make lots of noises such as ribbet. Frogs are really cool animals and there is tons of information on them.

I think this book was very informative and had a lot of great details. I liked how it had tons of pictures and showed the many different frogs. It talked a lot about where frogs live, what they eat, and how they live. These are all important part of a frogs life and I feel like they hit all of the points in this book. It also talked about how frogs catch their food and lay their eggs. The author’s name is Jim Arnosky who is an award-winning author and illustrator. I think it was good that he did this book because it was really enjoyable to read. I felt like he knew what he was talking about. After reading this book I feel like I know a lot more about frogs now. This book was very helpful and I think I would show this to a class when I start teaching.

[Faith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book Title: All About Frogs by Jim Arnosky

Short Description: This book is a nonfiction that tells everything about frogs.

Focus: Informational features I would use in a mini-lesson:

1. Informational Text Structure: I would use this to teach description in nonfiction. This book describes size, shape, and body features of frogs. Arnosky describes frogs with rich adjectives. I would have students focus on how they can describe their writing with vivid words.

2. Informational Text Structure: Even though Arnosky uses description to give information about frogs, there are a few pages where he compares frogs and toads. He compares frogs ad toads to teach the difference between the two. He does this by describing what a toad is like versus a frog.

3. Realistic pictures: Arnosky has vivid and realistic illustrations to give information about frogs.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.2
Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
a Introduce a topic and group related information together; include illustrations when useful to aiding comprehension.
b Develop the topic with facts, definitions, and details.
c Use linking words and phrases (e.g., also, another, and, more, but) to connect ideas within categories of information.
d Provide a concluding statement or section.

Expected Outcomes: Students will use this mentor text to study descriptive text structure of nonfiction. They will also use this text to help them create compare and contrast nonfiction writing.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

My second graders enjoyed listening to this informative book about frogs. I learned several things I didn't know. I didn't realize that while frogs will try to hop away from danger, toads squat low to the ground and don't move. It doesn't surprise me, but I hadn't realized that each species of frog has a call that is just as distinctive as its color and markings. (My students loved hearing some of the different approximations of their calls....cluck cluck, peep peep, jug-o-rum...). My students were also interested to learn that a frog has no rib cage, so their organs can be hurt if they are squeezed too tightly. Therefore, you should pick them up and hold them by their back. The illustrations worked well with the text, although I would prefer photographs.

[Dolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun and informative book about frogs. It's a little difficult to read aloud because of all the various snippets of information that are scattered on some of the pages, but overall, it's a good book for young children. It has lots of bright, colorful illustrations, and we love that a lot of the pictures are labeled as "actual size," so we could truly get an idea of the varying sizes of the frogs. The narrative has lots of details, but does not overwhelm. We really enjoyed reading this book together.

[Sean Fowler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a fun insight to frogs. It gave a lot of information about the development of frogs, what they eat, what eats them, and where they live. The only downside to the book is the illustrations. I would have liked to have seen real pictures rather than drawings. I understand a need for drawings at times, but real pictures of frogs would have made this book more interesting. However, the drawings were great and they did not take away from any of the learning the book provides. Finally, I now know the difference between a frog and a toad.

[Tara Weaver · Rating 4 out of 5]

k-2 (read alone)

Arnosky does a great job with illustrations to show the different types of frogs. Frogs fill all of the pages throughout the book. The text is bold and bright and some pages it is even white in color. It is easier to read for younger children. I believe this book would be very appealing to young children interested in frogs.

Science/Math

Use this book to show how many different frog names there are and children can get an idea of how different they all look.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this, but I didn't think it was as strong as other "All about". I learned less than usual, though I did learn the difference between a toad and frog. And it's hard to make a frog all that beautiful.

[Kris Odahowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of Jim Arnosky books for a young child is a passport the natural world, I learned so much about frogs and toads from this book I would love to have it in my home library. This book is available for check out at the Gadsden County Public Library.

[Sarah]

Compare and Contrast

[Marquita Davis]

Great book to learn about the life cycle of frogs. They could be raised in the classroom and released.

[Hayley Peacock]

This is such a fun book to learn about different types of frogs and so easy to do for a science lesson maybe even a unit. Great for 1st and 2nd grade.

[Casey Zarr]

A great insider on how frogs develop and different species of frogs. With many different assets to each individual frog. This book is for a younger audience maybe in a science classroom.

[Alyssa Padilla]

This is cute book about frogs and their life cycle. It is very kid friendly and young students could understand it. There are also a lot of good vocabulary words in this book, a lot of which might be new to children. I think this book would be good for all elementary grades.