A Frog on a Bog

A Frog in the Bog

Written By: Karma Wilson

Illustrated By: Joan Rankin

Schuster Children’s Publishing Division, 2003

30 Pages

Picture Book

 

     I chose this book, because of the illustrations on the front and the title.  I thought that it was cute how the title rhymed and was thinking it might be a good book to use for a lesson on rhyming.  The book is about a frog that eats several different types of bugs, while he is sitting on a log.  It starts with the frog eating a flea.  Then he eats a tick and some fleas.  Next, he eats a few flies.  Every time he eats a bug, the frog grows to be bigger and bigger.  After he eats the flies, he eats some slugs and snails.  Then, all of the sudden, the frog sees an alligator! This terrifies the bugs in his mouth! The bugs decide to come back out one by one, because they are afraid of the alligator.  Since all the bugs are gone, the frog gets back to his normal, small size.  But, then the alligator is no longer interested in the frog; he is not a big enough snack.  The frog and bugs both get lucky this time and learn from their experience! The frog will no longer sit on a log; the bugs do not go near the frog, either!

     The illustrations are very easy to understand.  They are painted with water colors.  The artist does a great job of depicting the swamp.  She uses very bland, dull green and brown colors; this helps show what a real swamp or bog might look like, because they are usually not very bright; sunlight is a minimum in these places.  I also liked how the artist drew a separate picture of each bug the frog ate and put it above the words; this also helps to show the order that the frog eats the bugs.  Each time a new bug is added, the picture above the words change. 

   I would use this book to teach sequence of events, rhyming patterns, and reading comprehension.  I would have actual pictures of the frog and the bugs he eats.  The students would have to come up and put the pictures in order.  I would also have my students tell what the three major parts of the story were (beginning, middle, end).  For kindergarten, I would do a lesson that focused mainly on rhyming words.  I would point out all of the words that rhymed.  After the story, I would ask a few sequencing questions, to make sure that they understood the main idea of the story.  Then, I would give them choices of words that rhymed or didn’t rhyme to test how well they are recognizing rhyming words and patterns.  Because this book has a variety of different topics to teach, I think it would be appropriate for kindergarten to second grade.