Adventures with Ethan: Freddy the Frog

by Carolyn R. Cochren, Ethan Cochren, Brian Rice (Illustrator)

Overview

The story of Freddy the Frog comes alive through the eyes and voice of a six-year-old boy by the name of Ethan. Ethan explores the world of nature and encounters a variety of events that could only happen to a six-year-old boy who has quite an adventurous spirit. Many times these events transpire with his 3 cousins and his sister who are approximately the same age. He talks about frogs with toe-pads that land on his Nanas windows and how they stick to them. His explanation of catching a frog, naming the frog Freddy, and how the frog landed on a tree and making a noise that sounded like SPLAT makes us wonder what he did to the frog. He tells the story of a Wart Lady. Living next door to his Nana gives him the opportunity to walk through the woods to her house. It is in these woods that Ethan finds many critters and adventure stories. His stories are imaginative and funny. He wonders if the events really happen or if he just has dreams and remembers them to tell his Nana. Ethan questions events such as his encounter with Freddy and the army of frogs he sees with him. Regardless of how the story of Freddy the Frog came about, children should find this story humorous.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781491817100
Publisher:	AuthorHouse
Publication date:	10/10/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	28
File size:	5 MB
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

There are three basic reasons this author decided to write stories for children in the elementary grades. The first reason is a result of listening to her grandson, who at 6 years of age started telling her numerous stories that were pretty hard to believe. He is now 10 years old, has an adventurous spirit and is quite the story teller. He and the author have documented several other stories. Most of his stories revolve around being outside, playing in the woods, observing nature, and doing other outdoor activities. The author has 10 grandchildren with 6 of them being between the ages of 17 months and 11years. She wants them to have a “love of reading, writing, and imagination.” She envisions this story capturing their attention, wanting them to excel in their reading and writing skills. The second reason for writing this story was the recently established education rules in Indiana where third grade students must pass a reading test before they are promoted to the next grade level. Therefore, the story is written on a third grade reading level. The author hopes this story will be an added spark for young children to read during their leisure reading time at the library or at home. The third reason for writing the book is the author’s love of kids. She is a retired teacher and school administrator with 31 years of experience. She holds a B.S. and an M.S. in Business Education, and received her Ph.D. in School Administration. All degrees were obtained at Indiana State University, Terre Haute, IN. In the 2007-2008 school year she was named, “Indiana’s Middle School Principal of the Year.” She has had numerous speaking engagements. The author believed that her experiences and training would assist in the writing of a children’s book.

Read an Excerpt

ADVENTURES WITH ETHAN

"Freddy the Frog"

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By CAROLYN R. COCHREN, ETHAN COCHREN, Brian Rice

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2013 Carolyn R. Cochren and Ethan Cochren
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4918-1711-7

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CHAPTER 1

Have you ever caught a frog and held it in your hands? I have and it is a weird icky feeling! Have you ever wondered how a frog flies through the air or sticks to a tree? Well, let me tell you. They don't fly and they don't stick to a tree unless they are a tree frog with toe-pads. How do I know this? Because our house sits right next to the woods and there are different kinds of frogs and other critters that live in those woods. The tree frogs in our neighborhood are dark green and have very large toe-pads that grip onto things.

Why those toe-pads almost look like the suction cups found on some toys that stick to the bottom of the bathtub when you take a bath! The one I caught was not a tree frog and he did not have wings to fly. When I picked him up, he was wet and cold and he had creepy looking bumps all over his body! You know what else ... that frog was so big and round that his sides hung over his back feet, and his eyes puffed out like big, fat purple grapes! He almost did not fit in my hand because he was so big! I got so excited that I couldn't stop jumping up and down! What an experience I had with this frog!

Sometimes, when it rains really hard, those little tree frogs are blown from the trees, and that makes them look like they are flying. I have seen them land onto the outside of the windows at my Nana's house. My Nana and Papaw live right next door to us. You know what else? Those frogs stick on the windows because they have yucky, sticky mucus on their toe- pads! That mucus almost looks like the mucus that comes out of your nose when you have a cold. Anyway ... when you are on the inside of Nana's house and you look out the window, you can see the underneath side of the frog and see those toe-pads really well. Believe me the frog I caught did not have toe-pads large enough to stick on a tree. This frog was brown and green, and like I said before, he was creepy looking. I could not even count the number of bumps on its body because there were way too many. He sure was a warty old thing. Anyway, I need to let you in on my adventure with this frog at my Nana and Papaw's house.

We were at Nana and Papaw's house because they decided to have family and friends over to roast hotdogs and marshmallow's and just have a good time. All my cousins, aunts, and uncles came. What a fun day we had! It was such as fun day because my cousins, my sister and I love playing together. There are five of us and we are all six months apart in age. Maddie is the oldest, then Weslie-Anne, me (Ethan), Reagan, and Reis. Sometimes we get into all kinds of mischief; especially, when Reis and I team up to scare the girls. Reis and I really like to do that! It makes the girls mad and we think that is so-o-o funny.

We were having lots and lots of fun playing in the woods and chasing each other around playing tag and hide-and-seek. As we continued to play, it became cloudy and a little cool, so Papaw built a fire in the fire pit. Of course, Papaw being Papaw, he never seems to get the wood stacked just right so the wood will burn instead of smoke, so I have to help him out by stacking the wood like a teepee. Once we got the fire going, we all gathered around the fire pit and roasted marshmallows on our roasting sticks we had gathered from the woods. Then we made Smores! That was so much fun and those Smores were so sticky, gooey, and yummy!

All of a sudden it got really dark and cloudy and it started to rain. We thought it was pretty cool when the rain hit our heads and got our hair all wet. Then the rain dripped down into our eyes and down our checks like we were crying. But we weren't crying. We were laughing because we liked being in the rain! However, our parents said, "kids head to the garage." We were disappointed that we didn't get to roast more marshmallows to make Smores, but we still had fun.

The garage door was left up as it was not raining that hard and it allowed us to watch the rain as it fell in the woods. Reis looked at me and said, "Ethan maybe it will rain hard enough to make some puddles that we can run through. We could go barefoot and splash each other, squish the mud up between our toes, get all muddy, and get it on the girls too! OOH, that sounds like so much fun!" I told Reis that was a good idea.

As it continued to rain, we started to hear the frogs croak and carry on. All of a sudden Maddie's eyes got as big as a half dollar, and she whispered to the rest of us about how much fun it would be to play in the rain. Of course, we had to get permission from our parents first, and they really surprised us when they said it would be okay to play in the rain. We thought for sure we would have to whine and beg and maybe even throw a little temper tantrum. WOW! That was a real shocker! Sometimes parents can be pretty cool. Reagan was the first one to step out into the rain and the rest of us followed her. How exciting to play in the rain! We jumped around trying to get water on each other, threw the football, and acted silly as the rain splashed on us again getting us wet all over. But, it wasn't raining hard enough to make mud puddles that we could splash and splatter on the girls! Now that was disappointing!

As we were running through the rain, all of a sudden I had to stop because there was this big old frog sitting in the middle of the drive way. Ugh! I almost squished him with my foot. The other kids saw him too! We tried to catch him but he kept hopping away. Finally, I caught the frog and put him in a small box I had found. Thinking to myself, I'm like, "oh-my- gosh, I can't believe I actually caught a frog and had him in my hand." I almost dropped him because he was almost as big as my hand! My sister and my cousins gathered some grass and put it in the box. We wanted to keep the frog as a pet, learn to feed him, and watch him grow. If we were going to keep him, he also needed a name. We thought Freddy sounded like a good name for a frog. So that is what we decided to call him. Freddy, Freddy the frog.
(Continues...)

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Excerpted from ADVENTURES WITH ETHAN by CAROLYN R. COCHREN, ETHAN COCHREN, Brian Rice. Copyright © 2013 Carolyn R. Cochren and Ethan Cochren. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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