Days and Nights with Frog and Toad!

My favorite activity with my five year old is to read to him or have him read to me. I believe reading to one’s kids is as important an activity as taking them to a park.  So whenever we get invited to a kid’s birthday party, guess what we gift the birthday boy or the girl – books of course! Similarly, when we visit a house with kids, we are probably the only guests who arrive with books instead of chocolates! So you can imagine my delight when we received books as parting gifts as when we bid goodbye to our friends in Portland. One such book we enjoy reading is the Arnold Lobel’s classic “The Adventures of Frog and Toad”! Many thanks to Keshav and Gauri  and their mom for picking up such a wonderful gift for their friend Abhay!!

It’s been almost six months since we were first introduced to Frog and Toad and the two best friends continue to make regular appearances at our bedtime story time!  First published in the 1970s, Lobel’s stories seem as contemporary as ever. As you meet Frog and Toad and follow them through their various adventures and misadventures, you realize that your son isn’t the only one begging for more! With over four volumes of Frog and Toad stories to choose from, Abhay has many favorites. My personal favorite is titled “Cookies” from the volume “Frog and Toad Together” is a story you’d love to read to your kid with a sweet tooth!  Abhay’s favorite  is “Tomorrow” from “Days with Frog and Toad” and you’ll know why. In this story, Toad wakes up to a messy house waiting to be cleaned up. Instead Toad pulls the covers over his head and declares that he’ll do it tomorrow and decides to take life easy today! When Frog peeps in to find Toad’s pants and jacket lying on the floor, kitchen sink filled with dirty dishes, dust on the chairs and plants that need watering, Toad seems to have only one answer “I’ll do it tomorrow”! Then all of a sudden, he realizes that if he takes life easy today, then tomorrow will most certainly be a hard day…with all the chores piled up. So he is curious to know - if he picks up his pants and jackets from the floor today, he wont have to do it tomorrow ..right?  Frog assures him that he does not have to do it again tomorrow.  So Toad brightens up and decides to bring his house in order and finishes all his work one by one so that he can save tomorrow for something he really wants to do. When Frog asks him what that is, Toad goes back to bed, slips into his sheets and says “Tomorrow I’ll take life easy!” Now that we’ve read it again….I know my little Toad will wake up the next day and say “I don’t want to go to school….I want to take life easy today!”