Mamma Toad does everything she can think of to save her unruly brood from Fox's frying pan, including offering up herself, and eventually persuades Fox to try her own secret recipe for Toad-in-a-Hole, a tasty treat that they all end up enjoying together. The secret? No toads! PLease add your comments using the picture book criteria for critiquing below?
The book "Toads on Toast" is unique because it is a fox eating toads. It uses good nouns and verbs, like when he describes the small, juicy frogs. The story has no rhyme, but I don't think a kid would really mind, much less notice. The pictures are really descriptive, for example on the first page, there is not only a fox on the picture, but also a bear, ducks, and in the background, there are even the toads. Every sentence puts a new idea in my head. The main character, the fox, finds out that he can eat some food with out toads, and he doesn't catch them anymore. It's not a circular story, and the character does not come back to the same problem, he comes to a different and new conclusion.For a child who can not read, the pictures tell an entire story by themselves. I enjoyed the story, but I don't think a child would enjoy this story because it's a little scary, seeing that the fox almost eats the toads.
ReplyDelete-Emily
Emily I totally agree with your comments. Yes the irony in this story is the play on words like toad in the hole. Yes it is a not a circular story but rather one which invites humour and encourages us to reflect on how wisdom can be subtly introduced with a clever play on words. I also agree that the pictures tell the story. I am not so sure about the scary part of this story as I think even young children have a good sense of what evil/right and wrong is about. But yes below 6 would not be appropriate. How do you think the artist reflected the emotions and the scary parts of the story in his illustrations? Thanks so much for sharing!!
ReplyDeleteActually now that I think of this story it could be a circle story of wisdom. What do you think Emily? Circle stories can be based on setting, growth of wisdom and cause and effect- What if? (like the books If you gave a Mouse a Muffin (What if or the famous one by Sendak Where the Wild Things Are (wisdom and setting)
ReplyDeleteI really want to read this book and will try and will try to get a hold of it this week. I think it is really interesting that we have two books that seem a little darker than others. Is there a similar theme to 'this is not my hat' and 'toads on toast'? I will comment more once I have read it.
ReplyDeleteI think Toads on Toast will win the Chocolate Lily Book Awards because it is a great story that keeps the reader on the edge of their seat!
ReplyDelete--written by Bella