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Rating: 
Summary: A gentle and utterly charming book, beautifully illustrated.
Review: I got this book to have on hand when my three year old niece came for a visit this past weekend. Before I picked it up and actually read it, I was worried that it might be scary for her, because of the cover illustration. After reading the story (while standing in the store), I realized that it was not a scary book at all. I figured that she might like it, so I bought it. I figured wrong. She didn't just like it; she *LOVED* it. I ended up having to read it to her SEVENTEEN times over the space of the weekend visit. She walked around the house, saying, "Frog Belly Rat Bone, One, Two, Three," all weekend. The illustrations in the book are delightful and richly detailed. The artist's use of color, the charm of the story, and the detailing of the cover make this book a pleasure to read to a child (even SEVENTEEN times). And her mom was pleased with the points it very gently makes about persistance and forgiving people when they've made mistakes. This one's a winner, and I suspect, destined to be a classic.
Rating:
Summary: Delightful story with Fabulous Illustrations
Review: I have never written a review for a book before, regardless of how much I loved it, and yet I feel compelled to let everyone know that I absolutely love this one. I picked it up because of the colorful and creative illustrations and found not only were the pictures great, but the story was the perfect combination of fun, sweetness, and a little bit of life's lessons that are worth learning. My three-year old son loves this book as well and I never find myself tiring of reading it to him.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice graphics - but typeface is too dark and hard to read
Review: I'd give this nice story 4 stars, if it weren't for the fact that the typeface is awfully difficult to read. Even now, after four or five readings with my daughter, I stumble over some words because the text font is almost illegible in places. Added to that problem is the overall dark and gritty background throughout the story that washes out the similarly dark text. They really should have thought about function before form on this book. The graphics are wild and different but be prepared for your child to ask what things are the first few times through. For example, the main character (a little boy) is scarcely discernible as being humanoid. This will require frequent explanations until the child knows from memory what these abstract drawings are. Read this under a good light!
Rating:
Summary: Delightful story with Fabulous Illustrations
Review: Intriqued by the illustration, I bought this book for my 4 yr. old son. I am not sure who loves it more.
Richly illustrated, this book wraps itself around you and draws you in to a wondrous world.
The story is engaging and not 'written down'. A great opportunity for vocabulary expanding. Many teaching moments and a great way to introduce a child to gardening.
Most importantly, my son loves it and Frog Belly!
Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: Intriqued by the illustration, I bought this book for my 4 yr. old son. I am not sure who loves it more.
Richly illustrated, this book wraps itself around you and draws you in to a wondrous world.
The story is engaging and not 'written down'. A great opportunity for vocabulary expanding. Many teaching moments and a great way to introduce a child to gardening.
Most importantly, my son loves it and Frog Belly!
Rating:
Summary: Charming
Review: The story is sweet, but the illustrations are really what make this book such a winner. Vaguely Tim Burton-ish, they're so stylistically appealing that anybody short of a total Scrooge would have to love this book upon leafing through it.
I read this on a slow day when I worked in a bookshoppe, and I was so utterly charmed that I bought a copy for my then-boyfriend's three-year-old son. He never received that book; it turned out I was too in love with it to give it away, so I bought a second copy for him. He and his dad adored it.
I then proceeded to recommend it to virtually every parent/godmother/uncle/etc. who came into the shoppe looking for a children's book, and at least five of them came back to say how much they/their child enjoy it.
This is one of those rare children's books that kids request to be read over and over again, and makes adults smile that goofy "I've just been floored by a children's book" smile. In the same class as Stellaluna for sweetness and all-ages enjoyment.
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