We are enjoying a wonderful book called Toad by Ruth Brown. It is the story of a revolting toad that is saved by its unsavoriness from being eaten by a great big lizard. Eric loves the part where the lizard tries to eat the toad. He likes the picture of the lizard looking surprised, with one little toad foot hanging out its mouth, and he likes the next picture even better: the toad flying through the air after being spit out.
I love the language. There are so many terrible, badly-written, dumbed-down books for little kids around that it is a great pleasure to come across one with wonderful vocabulary. Here are the opening three pages worth of text:
This is the tale of a toad.A muddy toad, a mucky toad,
a clammy, sticky, gooey toad,
odoroous, oozing, foul and filthy,
and dripping with venomous fluid.
Other adjectives used in this book include septic, sluggish, carefree, self-confident, and monstrous. There are fewer verbs, but it's quite delightful to come across trudges in a picture-book.
The story is simple but fun (toad is eaten, toad is spit out, toad is happy), the pictures are attractive and richly-detailed watercolors, and the language is good by any standard and simply glorious by kids' book standards. What a pleasure.