Title: Frog and Beaver
Author: Simon James
Illustrator: Simon James
Publisher: Walker Books
Genre: Children’s book
Book format: Hardback
Sweet Strawberries: 
Description: Frog and his friends all live happily together on the river. At least they do until Beaver comes along. Beaver is determined to build the biggest and best dam that anyone has ever seen, but it’s so big that it stops all the water and Frog and his friends are forced to move. Frog tries to warn Beaver that his dam is too big, but inconsiderate Beaver just won’t listen… A charming picture book with an environmental message from the acclaimed and award-winning Simon James.
*Free copy provided by publisher for review…
Review: Frog shares his life on the river with the ducks, water voles and their babies. One day Beaver arrives and he wants to build the biggest dam they’ve ever seen. But what will happen to the water in the river once it’s built?
This lovely tale comes in a hardback book around A4ish in size. The story is a fun and simple one where Frog welcomes Beaver to the river. Beaver starts working on the biggest and best dam ever, but the water level starts dropping in the river and the bigger the dam gets the less water there is. The story is short and I won’t give away the ending but it’s a lovely tale of friendship and understanding.
The illustrations are really lovely and it really makes you enjoy this book. The pictures are so fun and clear, and the pages they appear on are glossy. The book’s spine is on the shorter side, rather than the traditional longer side in books, making this book open up to be very long in width, but this shape creates some lovely wide images of the river which are so appealing. There’s something about the old fashioned look to the images that I just adore, perhaps as it reminds me of books I read when I was a child.
I really enjoyed reading this book and the images are ones I can’t help but look at again and again. The whole book just has a lovely feel to it and even the front cover is matt but Beaver and the title are glossy. It’s just so lovely that I’d recommend it to everyone.
-Review first appeared online February 2017 – now republished here.
Do you like this book? What do you think about books with environmental messages for children? Let me know what you think in the comments below 🙂
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