Frog and Toad are Friends

Story

Frog and Toad are Friends is a book containing five short, wonderfully illustrated stories. Adventurous frog and bumbling toad have lots of fun together doing simple day to day things like going swimming, writing letters, finding lost buttons and telling stories

Why we chose it

Gentle stories about friendship and the simple joy of spending time with a friend.

Where it came from

Arnold Lobel had a lot of time off school due to illness and he kept himself busy by drawing. He became worried about making friends again when he returned so made up stories about friendship between animals. As an adult he went to art school and worked in advertising whilst trying to find work as a children’s illustrator. The first book he illustrated had 64 pages of salmon swimming upstream but it was a start! He had written a number of books before Frog and Toad. He felt that in his earlier books he had tried to imagine what children might want to read whereas with Frog and Toad he wrote more from his own experiences and emotions as an adult, which made the stories stronger.

Where it went next

Lobel went on to publish four other books about the two friends.

Frog and Toad are Friends was a Caldecott Honor Book and runner-up for the annual Caldecott Medal, which recognizes children's picture book illustration. In 2012 it was ranked number 15 among the "Top 100 Picture Books" in a survey published by School Library Journal. The Frog and Toad stories are still in print 50 years after their first appearance.

Associated stories

The further Frog and Toad books are Frog and Toad Together, Days with Frog and Toad and Frog and Toad All Year. Lobel’s other books include Mouse Tales and Owl At Home.