The Frog Scientist

ALA Notable Book 2009
Orbis Pictus Honor Book 2009

Citation:

The Frog Scientist by Pamela S. Turner.  Photographs by Andy Comins. (Houghton Mifflin, 2009).  58p. Informational Junior Book.

Summary:

Dr. Tyrone Haynes and his team include the reader with his field biology and laboratory discoveries while trying to understand the decline in frog populations worldwide.

Critique:

a.         The photographs presented provide an unmistakable visual for the reality of a scientist.

b.         The order of events presented takes the reader from discovery to investigation to a hypothesis of a new theory relating to frog habitat and reproduction rates.

c.         “To test his hypothesis, Tyrone uses a manipulated variable…and a responding variable…The best way of remembering which is which is to think of an ‘if…then’ statement” (p.31) sets up the parameters of the experiment using familiar language with new vocabulary for readers.

Curriculum Connection:  

The Frog Scientist would be well suited for science lessons in most elementary and early middle school classrooms.  The pictures, vocabulary, and explanation can lend itself to the life cycle of a frog, the use of variables within an experiment, and scientific investigation skills.