Faiz Kermani

The Frog in the Skyscraper by Faiz Kermani is his second Frog book. It is an adorable children's chapter book that is recommended for children ages seven to nine years old. It could be read aloud to younger children as well. The illustrations were cute and colourful. Some of the language might be difficult for the younger readers but the 9 and even 10 year olds would be fine with reading this book independently.

The story is about a frog named Frijibold who lives in a pond in Central Park in New Your. He is bored with pond life and tired of hearing his uncle's songs. When he hears about Shark Fin Towers he goes to meet Sean Shark to rent an apartment. When Sean meets a talking frog he thinks he has just hit the jackpot. He lets Frijibold move in, then uses him as a marketing tool to fill the apartments. After a while, Sean Shark wants him to move out, but he misses the pond and moves out on his own. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence is a great message in this cute humorous story. A great chapter book for those young early readers.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.… (lisätietoja)

This was a very different story about a toad than what one might suspect. Tungtang the toad liked adventure. She was not content to sit in the pond everyday, she went off on adventures. When sharing a story with her friends, a bossy, bullying crow came along and starting teasing her and throwing acorns at her. The other toads began to doubt her stories. When she was challenged to go to town, she decided she would follow her dreams and head off. At this point, she is not sure what to do in the unfamiliar surroundings and ends up in a tea shop. She tasted some tea and decides she likes it. She learns about tea, the english language and almost becomes civilized while living there. Unfortunately for the owners, sipping other's tea. eating their pastries and leaving mud on the table upset customers and the owners almost lost the shop. They set a trap and eventually caught Tungtang. Imagine their surprise when she could talk and tell them about the tea. Fortunately for them, she became their tea taster and saved their shop.

There was a lot of humor in this story at the expense of humans. Talking about houses and cars was a hoot and then using expensive perfume instead of just rolling around in the things that mother nature provides made me chuckle. This was a fun story with adventure and humor. It shows kids that sometimes we have to ignore the nay sayers and follow our dreams. The illustrations were large and colourful. I would have liked to see more of them, but they added to the story well. This would be a cute chapter book for those early chapter readers as well as a good read aloud for younger children. This would be a good book in a family, classroom or school library. The publisher generously provided me with a copy of this book via Netgalley.… (lisätietoja)

Tungtang always thought of herself as an adventurous toad until one day a nasty crow laughs at her stories of adventure and tells her real adventure is going far away to somewhere you have never been. Tungtang decides that if she is going to be a real adventurer she needs to something different, something unheard of. She is going into the town!
Grandpa Nutbelch tells her about Dustysox the Great and his prophecy about a toad that goes on a journey and achieves great fame among the humans. Tungtang believes she is the one to fulfill the prophecy.

Once she gets to the town she takes up residence in a tea shop. She loves the smell and taste of all the different tea blends. She causes quite a lot of trouble in the shop during the day, stealing buns and upsetting tea cups but she always manages to escape detection. All this disruption is causing problems for the tea shop owners and the shop may have to be closed down. Will Tungtang be caught? Will the shop be closed down? How will Tungtang fulfill the prophecy?

This was a fun book to read and Tungtang was such a cheeky toad stealing sticky buns by day and hiding in the storeroom and rolling in the tea at night. Names like Lady Lobsterpants, Dustysox and Muddybum are sure to elicit a few giggles. Tungtang’s observations of humans and their ways was also quite amusing.
The illustrations by Korey Scott were colourful and brought the story to life.

The Toad Who Loved Tea is a wonderful story about adventure and discovering your true talent quite often lies in the things you love doing.
Written as a first introduction to chapter books with full page illustrations it is best recommended for ages 3 -7 years… (lisätietoja)

Deep in Malawi, in the heart of Africa, lay Lake Ticklewater. It was the home of many creatures, but especially frogs, who lived there among the stones and wild plants. No one could remember why, but the Lake Ticklewater frogs were all blue. Apart from that, they were ordinary frogs.

Biriwita lived among a small community of happy frogs until one day he received an invitation to the famous Croak College, The best college in all of Malawi. He was nervous about leaving his family but Biriwita wanted to follow his dream, so he left for the college. When he arrived all the frogs were green and they laughed at him because he was blue. All the teasing and nasty words made Biriwita sad and scared so he hid from everyone. Biriwita is sitting alone watching the other frogs having fun in the water when he sees impending danger. A crocodile is slipping into the pond!
What will Biriwita a do? Can he save the green frogs?

Of course this story has a happy ending with all the frogs, green and blue, getting along.

The Frog Who Was Blue is a story about following your dreams even in the face of adversity and that someone being different isn’t a bad thing. Everyone can do great things.

The illustrations by Naomi Powell are in a freehand style and are playful and subdued.
I love Biriwita’s little pet snail who is always close by (with his little snail trail behind him) during Biriwita’s journey. A delightful addition!
You can view Naomi’s distinct artwork on her website. www.naomipowell.com

The double entendre in the title is one the children easily understood when I explained it to them.

Recommended for ages 3 – 7 years.… (lisätietoja)