Felipe the Frog Learns to Swim: La rana Felipe aprende a nadar

by Mary Smathers, Claudia Gadotti (Illustrator)

Felipe, a tree frog who doesn’t know how to swim, is afraid of the water. His mother insists he take swimming lessons to stay safe in an upcoming storm. Will Felipe ever be comfortable in the water? Will he learn to swim before strong winds blow through his jungle home? Find out in this first book of the bilingual children’s picture book series, Tropical Tales. Appropriate for ages 0--6. But also useful for language learning beginners just starting to learn Spanish or English.

32 pages, Paperback

First published March 18, 2022

About the author

Mary writes fiction for adults and children. Unfamiliar Territory, released in May, 2025, follows a key character from her first novel into Gold Rush California. In This Land of Plenty, a family saga set in California history, was popular with book clubs and won multiple awards, including the 2021 Fiction Book of the Year from BiblioLab’s Indie Author Project--California, and a Readers' Favorite Gold Medal for Western Fiction. Mary also has published a collection of contemporary short stories, Fertile Soil: Stories of the California Dream and a bilingual children’s picture book series set in the tropics, Tropical Tales.

Before focusing on writing, Mary had a full career in California public education, serving as a teacher, administrator, teacher trainer, grant writer, and educational entrepreneur, helping to found three education companies and a public charter school. She divides her time between California’s Monterey Peninsula and Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast.