There Was an Old Monkey Who Swallowed a Frog

by Jennifer Ward, Steve Gray (Illustrator)

Overview

There was an old monkey who swallowed a frog, a bat, a mango, a toucan, an iguana, and more! What a hog! Zany illustrations rendered digitally by Steve Gray show monkey’s belly growing and growing as he eats a host of jungle creatures in this adaptation of the popular children's song, inspired by the rain forest.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761455806
Publisher:	Amazon Publishing
Publication date:	01/05/2012
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 10.60(h) x 0.30(d)
Lexile:	310L (what's this?)
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

Jennifer Ward grew up in California with four sisters and numerous pets. Her books have received such honors as the American Booksellers Association Book Sense Pick of the Lists, a Learning MagazineTeachers’ Choice Award for Best Children’s Picture Book, a Parents’ Choice Award, and a Governor’s First Grade Book Selection for the states of New Jersey and Arizona. Ms. Ward was also a Barnes & Noble Author of the Month two years in a row. Her recent titles include The Busy Tree and Let’s Go Outside! Outdoor Activities and Projects to Get You and Your Kids Closer to Nature. To learn more, visit www.jenniferwardbooks.com.

Steve Gray lived all over the country as a kid, but now lives in Hermosa Beach, California. He has illustrated a number of children’s books, including Farmer McPeepers and His Missing Milk Cows by Katy Duffield, which was chosen two years in a row by the California Teachers Association to promote Read Across America and was an Arkansas Diamond Honor Book Winner. His six-minute animated short film, Santa’s Camels, has been shown in over sixty film festivals around the world. To learn more, visit www.stevegrayillustration.com.

Editorial Reviews

Migrating to a rainforest setting, the creators of There Was a Coyote Who Swallowed a Flea present another wacky take on this tune. After swallowing his first victim (“I don't know why he swallowed the frog. What a hog!”), the googly-eyed monkey downs three animated cocoa beans “to sweeten the frog,” followed by a sequence of outlandish items and animals. Gray's digitally rendered illustrations alternately reveal the feasting monkey and the (remarkably) cheerful captives inside his stomach. Text and art deliver equal measures of over-the-top zaniness. Ages 4-9. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

The popular cumulative nonsense rhyme, "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly," is the inspiration for this fun parody. The digital artwork adds to the wild uproar with kinetic scenes of pop-eyed monsters that bump and squash each other and squawk through the jungle before an old monkey swallows them whole and mixes them together. The grotesque images, with the creatures and foods crowding into the monkey's ever-expanding belly, sometimes feel too packed, but the rhyming words, which stay true to the original song's rhythm, are fun for reading aloud: "I don't know why he swallowed the frog. / What a hog!" Young children will join in with slurping and burping noises of their own as they relish the repeated silly sounds and gross-out animal action.

Booklist

Old monkey swallows bits and pieces of the rainforest to a cumulative refrain, a rhythm and melody straight from that little old lady: "He swallowed the toucan to squawk at the bat. / He swallowed the bat right after the cocoa. / He swallowed the cocoa to sweeten the frog. / I don't know why he swallowed the frog. / What a hog!" Gray's shiny digital illustrations show the eater so fat in the end that the only movement possible is his stomach's "rumble rumble rumble... / Yours would too... // if you swallowed a jungle!" There is no regurgitation here, just an inside view of the googly-eyed cocoa, mango, vine, toucan, iguana, leopard, sloth, tapir, crocodile, etc., all alert and smiling crazily. Ward uses a few too many creatures to maintain the attention of the toddler-and-preschool group, which would be the standard audience for the rhyme, but older children familiar with the original can wink at the slick, goofy art and enjoy the over-the-top comic scenario, perhaps as part of a rainforest unit. (Picture book. 5-8)

Kirkus Reviews