There's a big green frog in the toilet by Anh Do, Simon Mellor and Heath McKenzie
Scholastic, 2017. ISBN 9781743812495(Age: 3+) Recommended. Rhyming story, Sing a long, Frogs, Toilets. Every child in the classroom would feel for the youngest member of the family desperately wanting to use the toilet but unable to get past the big green frog in the toilet bowl. He calls each member of his family in turn to fix the problem, but to no avail, each tries but fails to move the frog.
With an infectious lilting rhythm, the story rolls along in verse form, giving the listeners ample opportunity to predict the rhyming words and learn the refrain to sing a long with the reader.
The illustrations add a memorably funny storyboard to the words, and the whole is augmented by a rollicking CD. The music is easy to learn and sing a long with, the words easily remembered and the journey of the song easily understood. All in all it makes for a fun time in the classroom, involving poetry, music, drawing, listening and fun while an astute teacher would take the opportunity to discuss toilet etiquette, toilet humour, how a toilet works and the words associated with the toilet.
Each of the ways the family tries to rid their toilet of the frog could give rise to discussions about cleaning the toilet and its appropriate use, while some children may like to talk about what they can do when they are busting, a very real problem for many.
I love the wonderful pencil sketches of the frog included in the endpapers, which could encourage the class to experiment with drawing a frog using a few seemingly simple pencil lines. A fun read.
Fran Knight