Douglas Florian is an award-winning children's book author and illustrator best known for his poetry collections, including Beast Feast, which received the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award; Mammalabilia, which received the Claudia Lewis Poetry Award; Dinothesaurus, a Bank Street Best Book of the Year as well as a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year and a Junior Library Guild Selection; Bow Wow Meow Meow, a Parents Magazine Best Book of the Year; and many more. He is also the author of The Wonderful Habits of Rabbits. Florian is a fine artist whose paintings have been exhibited in numerous art shows, and a former New Yorker cartoonist. He lives in Long Island, New York. Visit him online at douglasflorian.com.
Barbara Bakos has been drawing for as long as she can remember. She has worked as an art director and a character and background designer for a television series, but she always knew that she wanted to spend more time as an illustrator. She now focuses on children's book illustration. She lives in the United Kingdom.
Florian's newest board books offer cheery introductions to the natural world for preschoolers and toddlers. Leap, Frog, Leap! combines action verbs with animals, with phrases such as "Race, rabbit, race!" and "Spin, spider, spin!" Once I Was a Pollywog focuses on the names of baby animals and what they grow up to be ("Once I was a cub...but now I am a bear."). Each book concludes with a human character-Leap, Frog, Leap! with a child sleeping and Pollywog with a baby who grows up into a boy. Both titles use rhymes and succinct text to help create a bouncy, simple rhythm for young readers to enjoy. Bakos's illustrations are bright and colorful, especially on the glossy board book pages, matching Florian's sprightly narrative. Even more dangerous animals, like a cheetah and an alligator, are drawn as warm, jovial, friendly characters rather than as scary or menacing, making the illustrations further suitable for preschoolers. In Pollywog, Florian offers some different creatures and terms with which children may not be as familiar, such as a leveret, which becomes a hare, and a gosling, which becomes a goose, providing more potential learning opportunities for young readers. VERDICT: With vivid, lively illustrations; simple, direct writing; and plenty of adorable animals, this pair of titles will be strong choices for any board book collection.-- "School Library Journal"
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