From Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor–winning author and illustrator Jonathan Fenske comes a funny, rhyming Pre-Level 1 Ready-to-Read with a twist ending!
See the bug in the bog. See the frog in the bog. Will the frog eat the bug in the bog? Find out what happens in this laugh-out-loud Pre-Level 1 Ready-to-Read with an ending you will not see coming!---from the publisher
32 pages 978-1-5344-7724-7 Ages 5-8
Keywords: early reader, frog, bug, part of a series, surprise ending, fun, humor, 5 year old, 6 year old, 7 year old, 8 year old
Editor's note: Sensitive readers might want to choose a different story.
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“Oh, my plans didn’t work out like I thought
‘Cause I had laid my trap for you but it seems like I got caught
What’s this whole world comin’ to
Things just ain’t the same
Any time the hunter gets captured by the game”
-- Smokey Robinson (1966)
“See the bug in the bog.
See the bug on a log.
See the bug watch the muddy bog bubble. (POP!)
The bug sits. The bug sings.
The bug thinks happy thoughts,
never dreaming there could be some trouble.”
Surprise endings are so much fun!
There’s an old 1984 picture book by British author/illustrator Tony Ross that I’ve shared with generations of kids. I’M COMING TO GET YOU! features a hairy monster from outer space who has been eating planets right and left. Now, he’s heading to Earth to get a little boy. But, in the end, the monster turns out to be around the size of a grapefruit or a coconut.
Other surprise-ending favs include ALAN’S BIG SCARY TEETH (Jarvis, 2016); THE WOLF’S CHICKEN STEW (Keiko Kasza, 1987); BARK GEORGE (Jules Feiffer, 1999); and I WANT MY HAT BACK (Jon Klassan, 2011).
THE BUG IN THE BOG is a level one beginning reader. It features a bug and a frog, some mud and some fog, and a surprise twist of an ending. Kids will marvel over the twist and will love the rhythm and rhyme.
I’d pair this with Raffi’s version of “Five Green and Speckled Frogs” and a poem from my childhood, Karla Kuskin’s “A Bug Sat in a Silver Flower.”
Recommended by: Richie Partington, MLIS, California USA
See more of Richie's Picks https://richiespicks.pbworks.
