In the rainforest, a frog with a very big mouth catches an enormous fly. The frog brags to a toucan, a coati, and a capybara. Wanting to brag just a little longer, he tells a jaguar. Guess what jaguars like to eat? Kindergarten-Grade 2—The locale here, the South American rain forest, refreshes the familiar story of a loud, hyperactive frog who boasts to other denizens about eating a huge fly, then queries them on their preferred diet. The setting balances the frog's comedy with information about toucans, coatis, capybaras, and jaguars, the last of whom observes our lucky hero's jumping talents. Endnotes with a paragraph on each animal reinforce the book's educational component. Terry's shiny, verdant rain forest capably offsets myriad greens with shadows of lavender, an electric-blue beetle, and wine-red berries. The spreads swirl with movement and beckon forward via fluid lines. The Frog with the Big Mouth brims with personality as he suspends from a tiny vine or leaps from a tree branch. This is an inventive version of a long-favored tale.— Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Teresa Bateman is the author of many books for children, including The Bully Blockers Club and April Foolishness . She is a children's librarian and lives in Washington state. Will Terry has illustrated more than twenty picture books including The Three Little Gators and Little Rooster's Diamond Button. He teaches illustration part-time at Utah Valley State College, creates ebook apps, and lives in Utah. The Frog with the Big Mouth By Teresa Bateman, Will Terry ALBERT WHITMAN & Company Copyright © 2008 Teresa Bateman All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-8075-2621-7 CHAPTER 1 Once there was a frog who lived in the rainforest by Iguazú Falls, where Argentina meets Brazil. He was a young frog, a new frog, a barely more than a pollywog frog, who was more mouth than body or brain, and still had much to learn. One day, while eating with his family, he caught a big fly, a huge fly, an enormous fly! He opened his mouth up wide, wide, wide, and gulped it down. "Look at me!" he cried, with a braggy bounce. "I'm the Frog with the Big Mouth! I've eaten the biggest fly in the whole world. Don't you wish you were me?" his brothers and sisters shrugged and kept on eating. so the Frog with the Big Mouth Set out to find someone else to impress. Soon he caught sight of something with a bright orange bill and feathers then two eyes opened up above the orange bill and blinked at him. "Hello! I'm the Frog with the Big Mouth!" the frog said with a happy hop. "I've eaten the biggest fly in the whole world! It's clear I've got the other frogs beat. Who are you, and what do you eat?" "Well, said the bird. "I'm a toco toucan. I eat fruit and eggs and sometimes seeds. A tasty spider suits my needs. I don't chase flies, big ones or small. No, flies don't interest me at all." (Continues...) Excerpted from The Frog with the Big Mouth by Teresa Bateman, Will Terry . Copyright © 2008 Teresa Bateman. Excerpted by permission of ALBERT WHITMAN & Company. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.