Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating!
Review: After being urged by my wife to read this book, I picked it up and found that I couldn't put it down. I hadn't anticipated a reaction of this sort to a book about frogs. Mr. Souder's writing style is conversational, and is easy to grasp for the non-scientist. Regardless of causality, Mr. Souder makes a good case that environmental difficulties for lower forms of life should be of a concern to all of us.I did not observe the type of overt bias suggested by some of the other reviewers. Certainly, the author believes that the issue of frog deformities is worthy of our attention, and makes every effort to draw us into the story as he sees it. Is there bias? Probably. Fact is, its been a long time since I've picked up an unbiased non-fiction read. I've come to believe they don't exist! Go in with your eyes open, and enjoy this read. It will make you think, and that's what it's all about. But my curiosity was peaked after reading Mr. Avery's review of this book. Mr. Avery clearly sees something in it that I did not, or did not fully appreciate. With a couple of key strokes, I came to learn that Mr. Avery is the author of "Saving the Planet With Pesticides and Plastics: The Environmental Triumph of High-Yield Farming." That explains alot. I'm sure in reading Mr. Avery's book, I'll find the sort of unbiased scientific analysis that I have been yearning for!
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating!
Review: After being urged by my wife to read this book, I picked it up and found that I couldn't put it down. I hadn't anticipated a reaction of this sort to a book about frogs. Mr. Souder's writing style is conversational, and is easy to grasp for the non-scientist. Regardless of causality, Mr. Souder makes a good case that environmental difficulties for lower forms of life should be of a concern to all of us. I did not observe the type of overt bias suggested by some of the other reviewers. Certainly, the author believes that the issue of frog deformities is worthy of our attention, and makes every effort to draw us into the story as he sees it. Is there bias? Probably. Fact is, its been a long time since I've picked up an unbiased non-fiction read. I've come to believe they don't exist! Go in with your eyes open, and enjoy this read. It will make you think, and that's what it's all about. But my curiosity was peaked after reading Mr. Avery's review of this book. Mr. Avery clearly sees something in it that I did not, or did not fully appreciate. With a couple of key strokes, I came to learn that Mr. Avery is the author of "Saving the Planet With Pesticides and Plastics: The Environmental Triumph of High-Yield Farming." That explains alot. I'm sure in reading Mr. Avery's book, I'll find the sort of unbiased scientific analysis that I have been yearning for!
Rating:
Summary: Good source of information-shocking yet true
Review: As a student currently doing research on this topic, this book was a good reference to the issue to frog deformites, expecially in the midwest where this book revolves around (the N. Leopard Frog).
Rating: 
Summary: I couldn't put it down!
Review: Contrary to the claims of Dennis Avery in his posted review, even the scientists who discovered that parasite infestations do cause some frog deformities do not claim that parasites cause all the deformities or that they cause all types of observed deformities. This book is well written and absolutely terrifying; its only real fault is lack of an index. Souder is familiar with his topic and the people involved and has written a clear, compelling account of this scientific mystery. Unfortunately, people with well-established biases will continue to ignore the message nature is sending us; that humanity has become an absolute plague on the face of the earth. We can no longer continue to breed like a virus and expect earth to recover from our insults. Frog deformities and massive drops in amphibian species worldwide are just the tip of the coming iceberg that will sink our civilization like the Titanic unless we sit up and take notice. Read this book, think about it, and for your children and grandchildren's sake, do something about it.
Rating:
Summary: Read this, then act on it.
Review: Contrary to the claims of Dennis Avery in his posted review, even the scientists who discovered that parasite infestations do cause some frog deformities do not claim that parasites cause all the deformities or that they cause all types of observed deformities. This book is well written and absolutely terrifying; its only real fault is lack of an index. Souder is familiar with his topic and the people involved and has written a clear, compelling account of this scientific mystery. Unfortunately, people with well-established biases will continue to ignore the message nature is sending us; that humanity has become an absolute plague on the face of the earth. We can no longer continue to breed like a virus and expect earth to recover from our insults. Frog deformities and massive drops in amphibian species worldwide are just the tip of the coming iceberg that will sink our civilization like the Titanic unless we sit up and take notice. Read this book, think about it, and for your children and grandchildren's sake, do something about it.
Rating: 
Summary: Biased but still honest book worth reading
Review: I don't know when I've read a sillier book than A Plague of Frogs: The Horrifying True Story, a new book by William Souder about the apparent rash of frog deformities and amphibian population declines. Despite this, I highly recommend reading it. Why? Because it is a case study in biased journalism. By reading the book, readers may come to understand the lack of objectivity with which most journalists, and even many scientists, approach environmental issues. Moreover, the books detailed account gives an all too rare window into the intense politics which regularly plague scientific debates. Chapter 1, titled "The Hell," begins when eight middle school students on a field trip from the New Country School in Le Sueur, Minnesota made "a shocking discovery." The students found eleven deformed frogs. Their teacher, Cindy Reinitz, reported the deformities to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. But she also took it one step further-she and her students posted photos of the deformed frogs on a website they developed. This action, more than any other event, brought national attention to the issue. Following the students' discovery, more cases of frog deformities were reported, bringing wider attention and thus more deformed frog reports. Eventually, reports of malformed frogs spanned the country, from California to Canada. Souder reports these events as dramatically as he can: ". . . the students were scared. They talked nervously about the deformities and what they should do . . . one of the kids asked Reinitz about the cancer rate in the area . . . Mentally she went around the township, thinking of everyone she knew in the vicinity . . . and found that she could think of several people with the disease." Later, he refers to another pond as "a horror show: The banks were alive with gruesome clots of crippled leopard frogs . . . By midsummer the lake had become a watery nightmare." Much of the book is devoted to detailing the intense debate among scientists-a debate centered around one basic question: are the deformities the result of natural causes or are they caused by pesticides or other man-made pollutants? Hence chapter eight's title: Choosing Sides. It is clear early in the book that Souder thinks there is truly a problem and man is the likely cause. In the introduction, Souder states that "deformed frogs, whatever the cause, fall into an already lengthening list of amphibian problems. What will become of the frogs? What is becoming of the earth itself? . . . the frogs are telling us something . . . The frog has sensed a change, a displacement in the order of life as we know it. We may be responsible, at least in part, for causing this change. And we may be next to feel it . . . The facts humble us . . . The frog is telling us something. Will we listen?" The underlying implication throughout most of the book is that some man-made pollutant, likely a pesticide, is ultimately responsible for "the plague of frogs." It's hard to fault Souder for this when this unscientific assumption permeates many of the scientists' thinking, especially scientists with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). Take for example this passage: "The MPCA...was working on the assumption that an environmental insult of some kind was causing the deformities. [The MPCA's Dr. Judy Helgen] could not believe this was any sort of natural event; . . . Helgen said she strongly suspected farm chemicals were involved. Because of the constant introduction of new pesticide products into the market . . . it seemed reasonable to infer that some recently introduced active ingredient was involved." (pg. 102-103) Perhaps that attitude explains why the MPCA, along with the National Institutes for Environmental Health Sciences, suffered a major embarrassment after issuing a press release stating that water from sites where malformed frogs had been reported was very potent in deforming frogs in a laboratory experiment. Again, the implication was that a man-made chemical pollutant was at fault. Yet, as Souder dutifully and accurately reports, "Within four months, they'd end up taking it all back." It turns out that the natural pond and lake water being tested "was unusually soft" and simply lacked key minerals critical for the proper development of the African clawed frog used in the experiments-there was no chemical mutagen or man-made pollutant whatsoever, just the quirks of Mother Nature herself. The irony is that while the regulatory scientists were busy trying to find the "smoking-gun" man-made chemical, researchers in California were able to reproduce all of the observed frog deformities with a single natural frog parasite. Their research gets published in Science, the most prestigious scientific journal in the world. The parasite is later found at many of the sites of malformed frogs. We'll never know if parasites caused the frog deformities at all of the sites, including the ones considered "hot spots" by the MPCA, because the parasite researchers were barred from visiting those sites by the petty maneuverings of MPCA scientists-no doubt they feared further embarrassment following the retracted press release. Souder's commentary on the groundbreaking research is a bit misleading and biased, stating that "parasites did not explain all of the outbreaks." In one final irony, the last chapter of the book is devoted to the declining populations and eventual extinction of the famous golden toad of Costa Rica. Here too, many scientists had speculated a man-made pollutant as a likely cause. And once again, a natural cause is discovered-climate change. In research published as a cover article in the journal Nature, it was demonstrated that in recent years the perpetual cloud atop Monteverde where the golden toads lived had moved progressively higher. While species which lived at lower elevations were able to move to higher elevations with their prefered climates, the golden toads, which already lived at the top of the mountains, could move no higher. As their mountain top forests became too dry, the frogs disappeared. Given the title of his book, Souder must find mother nature a "horrifying true story." Plague of Frogs is a rare, candid window into an environmental debate. The biases of the scientists are revealed in detail and at a personal level. The agendas of the regulatory agencies are exposed. Objective science eventually prevails, despite Souder's derogatory embellishments and biased commentary. And the frogs live on.
Rating:
Summary: I couldn't put it down!
Review: I must disagree with the reviewer who referred to William Souder's "A Plague of Frogs: The Horrifying True Story" as a 'silly' book. This book was at once horrifying, fascinating, spellbinding, and thought-provoking. It also appears to be well-researched: Souder followed the story for more than three years and he references more than one hundred texts and technical papers at the end of the book. This is no 'silly' book. I cannot agree with the same reviewer who described the book as 'biased journalism.' In my opinion, Souder presents an intriguing but balanced look at the problem and the efforts of scientists to understand it. Anyone with even a slight interest in our environment should read this book. You won't be able to put it down! When I saw the cover of the book, with its photograph of a deformed frog, I remembered seeing newscasts in the mid-90s about the discovery of large numbers of frogs with deformed legs. Missing legs, missing toes, extra legs, extra feet, underdeveloped legs and other anomalies were being discovered in frightening quantities. There were frogs with as many as nine legs. There were frogs whose feet were webbed to their torsos such that they could not extend their back legs and jump normally. I was at once intrigued and repulsed by the descriptions and photographs of some of these specimens. What DID cause these deformed frogs? I could not remember seeing a follow-up newscast with the resolution of the mystery of this outbreak or 'plague.' I was hooked. After buying the book, I raced through it. Souder's style was similar to that of any good mystery writer - gradually relaying the story as it unfolded during the months and years that he followed it. But here, the story is true and the detectives are scientists. What I found most horrifying is that despite all of our knowledge and technology, this mystery defied solution. Surely with all of our advances in science we could solve this problem. Right? But the mystery persisted for months and YEARS. Souder teases the reader as the story unfolds. I kept waiting for the 'answer' to be found. In the process, Souder revealed the debate and conflict among the various scientists - each of whom had areas of specialty and expertise that were possible 'suspects' in the mystery. Were the deformities caused by parasites? How about man-made chemicals? Was this part of a naturally occurring cycle of occasional genetic bloopers? Or was something very amiss in the frog's environment? Souder's book reveals the sometimes petty squabbles between scientists and researchers, who, despite their intelligence, are just as human as you or I. He also shows us the lack of organization, overabundance of red tape and bureaucracy, and the lack of funding for solving this mystery. I don't want to give away the 'answer,' so I'll just say that the ending was not what I expected. I'd still read the book again ... and probably will.
Rating:
Summary: A Marvelous....Wonderful Book about Frogs
Review: I think this is Truly a WONDERFUL Book..... The price is wonderful and it just tells you alot about frogs.... Any type of teacher would love this...especially science teachers! Marvelous!
Rating:
Summary: Mutant Frogs
Review: I thought this book was an extremely vivid and detailed account of an ecological disaster that is becoming all too common. Mr. Souder came and talked to a biology class of mine not too long ago and seemed to really know what he was talking about. This book reflects his exceptional journalism skills, which helps the reader understand things that scientists have done to try and solve this enigma.
Rating:
Summary: Mutant Frogs
Review: I thought this book was an extremely vivid and detailed account of an ecological disaster that is becoming all too common. Mr. Souder came and talked to a biology class of mine not too long ago and seemed to really know what he was talking about. This book reflects his exceptional journalism skills, which helps the reader understand things that scientists have done to try and solve this enigma.
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