* Ribbit * Books featuring frogs your kids will love for the leap year!

Fanatical About Frogs by Owen Davey

Did you know that there are over 4,000 known species of frog? Some are bigger than your dinner plate, while others are small enough to sit on your fingernail, and in between is about every color and size you can imagine! Leap into this fascinating illustrated guide to the most diverse amphibians in the world, from the lumbering common toad to the beautiful but deadly poison dart frog. (Nobrow Ltd.)

The Rizzlerunk Club: Best Buds Under Frogs by Leslie Patricelli

Lily is pretty lucky. She made a friend on the first day at her new school—even after she barfed on the playground—and now she and Darby are the only two members of the RizzleRunk Club. Darby is fun. She tells funny stories, she likes to catch frogs, and there’s lots of junk food at her house. Darby is good at lots of things, too. Especially lying. Which Lily isn’t. She gets that ants-under-her-skin feeling when she even thinks about doing it. But sometimes telling the truth is just too hard, so when Lily accidently does something to the class rat that she’s afraid to admit, she denies it. Soon the lie feels like something awful sitting in the bottom of her stomach. Will Lily find a way to let it out? (Candlewick Press)

Leap Frog by Jane Clarke, Britta Teckentrup (Illustrator)

What’s that noise? The jungle can be a scary place for a tiny tree frog like Felix, and all the strange noises are making him a little bit jumpy. Help Felix find a safe place — and perhaps a special someone — so he can nod off for a peaceful sleep. (Candlewick Press)

Oscar and the Frog: A Book About Growing by Geoff Waring

Oscar is a curious kitten, and at the pond he is full of questions about growing things. Luckily, Frog can help with the answers — after all, he’s gone through some impressive changes himself! Includes lesson summaries!
Back matter includes an index and supplemental activities. (Candlewick Press)

I Don’t Want to Be a Frog by Dev Petty, Mike Boldt (Illustrator)

Frog wants to be anything but a slimy, wet frog. A cat, perhaps. Or a rabbit. An owl? But when a hungry wolf arrives—a wolf who HATES eating frogs—our hero decides that being himself isn’t so bad after all. In this very silly story with a sly message, told in hilarious dialogue between a feisty young frog and his heard-it-all-before father, young readers will identify with little Frog’s desire to be something different, while laughing along at his stubborn yet endearing schemes to prove himself right. (Random House Children’s Books)

Tad by Benji Davies

Tad is small. In fact, she is the smallest almost-a-frog in the whole, wide pond. That makes it hard for her to do big things like follow her tadsiblings who swim to other parts of the pond when they outgrow the nest.

As her tadbrothers and tadsisters swim up, up, up, they leave poor Tad by her lonesome. That’s until…Big Blub shows up! He’s not only bigger than Tad, but Big Blub isn’t exactly what a tadpole would consider friendly.

Swimming at her own pace, Tad soon learns how to to be bigger than her fears. Benji Davies creates a memorable and timeless tale that proves sometimes the mightiest creature comes in the smallest package. (HarperCollins Publishers)