I love going out to eat...now that the kids are all grown and on their own, I very seldom cook. Lucky me.

Thankfully I never had to eat where a certain frog would go with his parents for an Anniversary celebration dinner.


The Story

Our story starts out with the main character Froggy sitting in a chair and dreaming about his favorite food, burgers and flies.

He was so hungry, and searched the kitchen to see what there was to eat. Suddenly he hears a loud Frrooggyy! His mother was calling him to remind him that they were going to a fancy restaurant for dinner, and froggy should get dressed up. flop flop flop off he went to get ready.

He dressed and washed and and then heard Frrooggyy! His father was calling and off they all flopped to the restaurant.

The restaurant had candles and flowers and tablecloths white as snow.

"This is a fancy restaurant," said Froggy
"Yes" said his mother. "So remember:
Be neat,
be quiet,
and don't put your feet
on the table."

Well, of course being a rather impatient little frog Froggy got into all sorts of trouble before he had his meal of spaghetti served to him. He fidgeted and banged his spoon on the table. He hit the tip of the spoon in such a way that it flew and hit the waiters head. He pulled petals off of the flowers and blew out the candle. Then he flopped around the restaurant flop flop flop until his father told him to sit down.

Once Froggy has his spaghetti he sllluuuurrrpppps it up, and is then embarrassed that the beautiful Frogilina is sitting nearby watching his antics. Trying to hide from her, he pulls on the tablecloth so hard that it flys off of the table, and sends spaghetti flying everywhere...suddenly he was looking more red in the face than green.

Froggy suggests going to a fast flies place and mother and father agree and they all leapfrogged all the way there...flop flop flop... and they all ate burgers and flies...munch munch munch.


The Illustrations

I love the way the Froggy series of books are illustrated. The colors are bright and vivid and the lines are solid. Froggy is a handsome (?) looking young frog with all of the characteristics of a human. His face is full of expressions and his movement, while adapted to the behavior of a frog, is remarkably human like.

The backgrounds of most pages is a watercolor look, with fading colors of either blues, yellows, reds or oranges. The medium sized black text is easy to see on each page, and is generally printed in the lightest area of the pages, making it easier to see.

On the page where they are arriving at the restaurant Froggy is dressed in a white shirt with a yellow bowtie, green and black checked shorts with suspenders and oxford type shoes on his large frog feet. His mother and father are also dressed up, with mother in a pink dress and pink high heels and father in a suit that is checkered green and black. He is sporting a tie and the also has oxfords on his large feet. What a sight they all are as they admire the tables. The setting is a very human one, and that makes this book even more enjoyable.


My Feelings

I really like this Froggy book, and the lessons that can be garnered from it, if you take the time to discuss with children the ways that Froggy was not using good manners. I believe the discussion should also include the fact that Froggy's parents didn't really discipline him for his bad behavior, and they ended up going to eat where Froggy wanted to.

This isn't a book that I would really want a child just sitting down to read by themselves, mainly because I do believe that a lot of discussion is required, but it is a great book for a daycare or a parent to share with children.

The story is a funny one. It is also very fun to read. In reading this book to the daycare, the children quickly learned that after the line Frrooggyy! would come his response "Wha-a-a-at?" from Froggy and they began saying this line themselves at the appropriate times. This got them involved in the reading, and helped to hold their interest as well.

The use of repetitive words such as flop flop flop and funny words such as zut, zwit, znap, zap and zip as he dressed himself increased the children's interest in this book and held them rather spellbound as my daughter read it them. This is also a great way to help young children increase their vocabulary and work on letter sounds.


Nuts & Bolts

Froggy Eats Out was written by Jonathan London who has authored many many Froggy books as well as What Do You Love? Crunch Munch, Snuggle Wuggle and many more.

The illustrations in this book were artfully done by Frank Remkiewicz. He illustrated all of the Froggy series of books, as well as Elevator Magic, the Horrible Harry series of books and Arithme-Tickle.

The tradecloth hardcover that I have is published by Scholastic books in 2002 with an arrangement with Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers.

This 32 page book is recommended for children 5 - 8 years old, however our 3 year olds at the daycare listened very intently to the story and giggled at the way Froggy acted. I think that younger children can enjoy this book as well as their older siblings.

We received this book free through Scholastic for placing an order, so I don't know what their price on it is, but it can also be purchased through Barnes & Noble for $12.79. As always I recommend shopping around for it, because that seems like a rather high price, to me, for this book.

ISBN: 0-439-39644-1





Recommended: Yes