Title: AbbeyLoo and Gus the Talking Toad

Author: Tammy Cortez

Illustrator: Noemie Gionet Landry

Publisher/Year: Waldorf Publishing/2015

Summary: AbbeyLoo is a curious little girl with a BIG imagination. This imagination takes AbbeyLoo to some very exciting and often unexpected places. AbbeyLoo loves exploring her backyard. There is always something new to see. Her favorite find is the many toads that roam her backyard. AbbeyLoo loves to carefully catch the toads and pet them and talk to them. Normally they don’t talk back, but today is totally different. Follow along with AbbeyLoo on her latest adventure as she meets Gus, the talking toad.

______________________________________________

You may have guessed, since the name of my site is Frog on a Blog, that I like frogs and toads. I even wrote a story featuring Finley, my froggy blog co-host. I’m still working on getting that book published. In the meantime, Finley and I enjoy reading picture books together, and his favorite stories always include frogs and toads.

Recently, we read AbbeyLoo and Gus the Talking Toad, which stars not just an energetic, curious, and friendly little girl, who loves to explore, but also a toad named Gus. For this review, I decided to ask Finley what he thought of the book.

Me: Finley, what’s the first word that comes to mind when you think about AbbeyLoo and Gus the Talking Toad? 

Finley: Fun!

Me: Why do you think it’s fun?

Finley: Because it’s about a toad named Gus who makes friends with a little girl and after she shrinks down to his size, he takes her underground to where all the toads live, Hopville!

Me: I agree, it would be a lot of fun to shrink down and go explore the toads’ underground town. What did AbbeyLoo see when she got there?

Finley: Lots of things! She saw colorful mushroom houses, insects being kept as pets, and toads wearing clothes. They were quite fashionable, as a matter of fact. They even wore hats!

Me: Neat! What else happened in the story?

Finley: Well, there was a parade and a festival going on with clowns, music, games, rides, and even tasty frozen flysicles and spider web cotton candy! Yum!

Me: Wow! It seems like these toads like to do the same things that people do, except, of course, eating flysicles and spider web cotton candy. Did AbbeyLoo have any trouble while she was there?

Finley: Yup! The townsfolk were very worried about having a human “toad hunter” in their town.

Me: What did they do?

Finley: They made AbbeyLoo sign a Peace Treaty. But luckily, she was happy to do it.

Me: That’s good! I guess AbbeyLoo made a whole lot of new friends, including Gus.

Finley: Uh huh! She even met Gus’s wife Millie and their two kids, Billy and Rosie. Billy and Rosie go to school too!

Me: How interesting! What did you think of the illustrations in the book?

Finley: I like them! They’re very colorful! I would have liked to see more of them though.

Me: What’s your overall impression of the book?

Finley: The book has a lot of text, so it might be hard for the littlest children to sit through it. But the story is very imaginative and I know kids will like it! Besides, you can’t go wrong with a story about toads!