Illustrator: Jon J. Muth
Age Range: 0-8 years
The combination of Mo Willem’s sparse language and Jon J. Muth’s luminous, emotion-filled paintings is unexpected, yet delicious. This story of a friendship chronicles the year in the life of a city dog who meets a country frog on his own turf (lily pad?). Together, dog and frog explore the other’s idea of fun and the natural environment around them. As the story follows the seasons, the natural cycle of life asserts itself and the frog’s life ends, City Dog wonders if he’ll have another friendship like the one he shared with Country Frog. The beautiful, sparse language and gorgeous, expression-filled illustrations are perfection; this is on my shortlist for Caldecott. City Dog, Country Frog would be a terrific read-aloud for children through 4th grade. The death of frog is addressed very gently – he’s simply not at the pond when dog arrives to spend the winter with his friend. But it’s not all poignant sentiment; there are many humorous moments, mostly conveyed through the illustrations.
Find it in the catalog.
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