Frog Medicine

Elmo daydreams in class and gets stuck with a most unpopular book, Frog Medicine by Dr. Frank Galoof. When he gets home, Elmo chucks the book in his closet. How many kids can identify with that? Unfortunately the majority will be boys. Elmo proceeds to procrastinate. Kids just hoot when you turn the page and they see Elmo's frog feet sticking up out of the bath water. They will insist on viewing every illustration to follow (there's alot to see). Elmo is overcome with the anxiety that accompanies his procrastination. He sees frogs everywhere he goes. The author of the book, Dr. Frank Galoof (a frog), gives Elmo some advice. He prescribes some good old-fashioned Frog Medicine : Do your homework. It just kills me when great books like these go out of print!!!

Elmo was watching a strange insect crawl across his classroom floor the morning Mrs. Drindle brought books in for book reports, so he got stuck with the only book left, Frog Medicine, which not surprisingly, none of the other kids would swap with him. "I'll read it later," he told his cat Leon. Naturally, as boys will do, he procrastinated all week. He fell asleep over his unread book the night before his report was due. Elmo woke up feeling sick, and no wonder--his feet were green and webbed. He called the author, Dr. Frank Galoof, for advice and found a cab outside his apartment building that spirited him--actually floated--to Frogtown, where Dr. Galoof said it was no wonder he was turning into a frog. Lunch in a swamp-colored restaurant, where the waiters were frogs like the good Dr. and the fare consisted of slugs and insects, Galoof told poor Elmo,"You see, the longer you put a problem off, the worse it becomes. It's all in my book." Elmo replied, "I had no idea frogs led such interesting lives."Elmo took the advice--"Just read the book"--and liked it! Everything, even his feet, returned to the everyday.Kids absolutely love the froggy, swamp-bottom illustrations and clever language and dialogue in this special creation. It's much better than the books that Roy Plumpton or Arthur Flax chose--Common Household Monsters or The Lost Dinosaurs of Terror Island. From a grown-up's point of view, the best thing about this treasure is that the medicine--READ--goes down with a spoonful of sugar. Maybe Dr. Galoof was a colleague of Mary Poppins. Alyssa A. Lappen

This is one of those books where the kids just couldn't get enough. The character is one they could relate to, and the subject was very appealing. The illustrations kept them wanting the next page. Try Moog Moog by the same author for another adventure from the same character.

I am a first/second grade teacher and my students have been so delighted with Mark Teague's works. We first became familiar with Frog Medicine this fall (1997) I have been requested to read this book at least four times now. Each time we read Frog Medicine we notice something new. Just recently my students realized that an old favorite "Pigsty" was also written by Mark Teague. His "style" of illustrations gave us the biggest clue. The children were also able to point out similarities in plot. My students are anxious to find another adventure by Mark Teague.