Near the top of the list of things kids love about science are dinosaurs and weather (dinosaurs probably a little more.) But weather is fascinating, too. Rain and sleet, snow and hail. Thunder, lightning, wind. There is so much going on.
Enter Freddy the Frogcaster, the new book by Fox News Channel's (FNC) senior meteorologist Janice Dean. Rated at Guided Reading Level K, Dean's text and Russ Cox's illustrations tell the story of young Freddy, who is fascinated by weather. As a tadpole, his first word was "rain". Papa Frog builds him a fully equipped weather station and at school, he forecasts the weather for his schoolmates' birthday parties.
When his favorite TV meteorologist, Frog News Network's Sally Croaker, goes out on maternity-um, tadpole-leave, her replacement, Polly Woggins, becomes a big celebrity. So big, in fact, she starts doing a really bad job at work. With the Leapfrog Picnic rapidly approaching, the Mayor is concerned and goes to Sally and Freddy for help. They predict a storm that Polly completely misses. But Polly does say "be prepared for anything" and, taking that to heart, Sally, Freddy, and the Mayor set up the Frogatorium just in case. The storm does come, but because of the preparations, the Picnic is a roaring success. In the end, Polly realizes she needs to shape up, and offers Freddy a job he, well, leaps at--to be her assistant at the Network.
Thinking as a kindergartener or first grader, I enjoyed book. It is a story of life-lessons: hard work, honesty, and following your dreams can pay off. It is a fun story, and Cox's illustrations are bold and colorful; the story is interesting and detailed enough that adults would like it too. Parents can enjoy reading the book to their kids--even better, kids can enjoy reading it to their parents. The text is easy enough for parent and child to read it together.
In the back of the book, after the main story, there is a glossary of weather terms and meteorological tools. It's written as a letter to the reader from Freddy, and the definitions are good. I learned more from this than I've forgotten from my own college meteorology course.
Not having any kids of my own, I obviously don't spend a lot of time with books like this. But when I heard about it on FNC, of course, it sounded interesting. And it is. Dean and Cox did a great job.
4 comments:
Sounds like a good book but I think you can read a more challenging book!
Duncan,
Challenge accepted! :)
And now a comment from email:
Good review Bill. Looking forward to your review of Rush's new children's book. It will determine wether I will read it or not.
Ted
Ted-- Wow, the pressure! Just kidding. I'll take a look at it.
Sounds like a great book for kids. Will see if the library has a copy. Would like to look it over.
Anon--That's what I did. Had to put a hold order, but got it in about a week.
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