Day 94: Frog and Toad are Friends

Oh, how I love Frog and Toad!  These books are some of my absolute favorites from my childhood, and I love reading them to my own children as much as I loved listening to them as a little girl.  Arnold Lobel's classic Frog and Toad books are part of the "I Can Read" series, though I have found my son has enjoyed them since he was about two years old.  We also recently got a cd read-along version of this out from the library, which has been fabulous for summer trips in the car. (We definitely need to get some more audio books!)  We love all of the Frog and Toad books, but this particular one, Frog and Toad are Friends, contains one of my all-time favorite stories of friendship, "The Letter."  Toad is feeling particularly sad one day because he never gets any mail.  Frog visits with him for a while trying to cheer him up, but they spend most of their time just sitting on the porch feeling sad together.  Suddenly, Frog has the perfect idea.  He rushes home to write his dear friend, Toad, a letter.  When he is done, he happily addresses the envelope and asks a neighborhood snail to deliver it for him.  Then he rushes back to Toad's house to wait for the mail.  Of course, snail mail takes a rather long time -- 4 days, in fact -- but Frog's simple act of friendship is enough to make anyone smile... especially Toad.  And I just love what his letter says: "Dear Toad, I am glad that you are my best friend.  Your best friend, Frog."  It's a wonderful story that captures the true spirit of friendship, and offers the gentle reminder to all of us that the world can always use more random acts of kindness, even towards our closest of friends.  Other stories in this collection include "Spring," "The Story," "A Lost Button" (another favorite), and "A Swim."  If Frog and Toad have not yet made their way into your reading rotation, look for them the next time you are at the library.  Their stories are true classics in every meaning of the word. 

Day 16: Frog and Toad Together

Frog and Toad are perhaps the most memorable literary characters of my childhood.  I remember reading these stories curled up on the couch with my mom, who recently found my old copies of these wonderful books and passed them along to me.  My son, husband, and I were amused to find my name and phone number written inside the front cover in my earliest handwriting, complete with the 6 written backwards so that it looked like a 2.  Classic.  I had actually already gotten my son his own copies of these stories about a year ago, hoping that he would love them as much as I do.  So far, so good! 

There are a few reasons that I chose this classic as today's featured book.  First, my son and I planted tomato and herb seeds in little container pots yesterday and are anxiously waiting to see them grow.  As we watered our seeds and set them in the sunshine of our bay window sill, I couldn't help but think of Toad in the story "The Garden," the second chapter of Frog and Toad Together.  Eager to have a beautiful garden like Frog's, Toad decides to plant some seeds of his own.  Being Toad, though, he is impatient, and can't figure out why his seeds don't grow right away.  Frustrated, he keeps yelling, "Now seeds, start growing!"  Hopefully my son will have more patience than Toad and our seeds will sprout in a week or two as they should.  Perhaps if we sing and read poems and play music to our seeds like Toad does, we'll end up with a beautiful garden someday, too. 

The other reason I picked this story today is that it features one of my other all-time favorite Frog and Toad stories, "Cookies."  This adorable tale about Frog and Toad's attempts to find willpower and stop eating Toad's delicious cookies is one that any sweets lover like me can appreciate.  "Let us eat one very last cookie, and then we will stop."  How many times have I thought that to myself?  But why the relevance today?  Well, it's Cadbury Mini-Egg season, that glorious time of year when I need to summon all the willpower I can not to eat an entire bag in one sitting.  I have hidden both bags of Mini-Eggs away and refuse to open them before Easter, for once I do, I'll be even worse than Frog and Toad at finding any willpower.  And there is no way I'm giving them to the birds.  "Cookies" has become one of my son's favorite Frog and Toad stories, too, along with my other favorite from this book, "The List."  If you and your little one have not yet discovered Lobel's delightful stories about the adventures of these two best friends, check them out the next time you visit your library.  As part of the "I Can Read" series, they are usually in the early reader section.  As with the Henry and Mudge books, I think Frog and Toad's stories are perfect for little ones long before they can read on their own.  I hope you love them as much as we do!