Toad by the Road

Toad by the Road
Written by: Joanne Ryder
Illustrated by: Maggie Kneen

Toad by the Road discusses a year in the life of a toad.  An aspect of this book that I really enjoyed was the fact that the table of contents was split into 4 seasons.  One would normally think: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter.  However, Ryder breaks the life of a toad into four seasons known as 1) Spring-Summer, 2) Summer, 3) Late Summer-Fall, and 4) Winter-Spring.  As you can see, the life of a toad is different that ours by just looking at how their year is broken up.  One can also notice that Summer seems to be a popular and perhaps busy month for a toad.

The author does a nice job of incorporating all types of poetry styles into her book.  Rhyming, repetition, alliteration, patterns, etc. are all displayed throughout the pages.  I would recommend this book of poetry to students in 2nd grade or younger.  This could easily be used in a science class as a supplement to a amphibian unit.