Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel

So I recently found out that Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad is going to be made into a film by the Jim Hensen film company. What a great time to spotlight these gorgeous, classic characters and their adventures.

The Frog and Toad stories are first chapter books, intended for young children just starting to read on their own. The language is simple with lots of 'vocabulary list' type words, short sentences, and large writing. Half and quarter page illustrations accompany the text, depicting Frog and Toad in a lovely soft green/grey colour palette. I love the illustrations. They are a fantastic accompaniment to the text, and also very revealing of Frog and Toad's characters.

Of the two, Frog is the smarter one - outgoing and forward-thinking - while Toad is slightly more neurotic and grumpy, and quite reliant on his friend. But their friendship is gorgeous. I have a battered old copy of Frog and Toad Together, and I have always found Lobel so accomplished in depicting a multitude of feelings with so simple a vocabulary. The Frog and Toad books not only encourage kids to read on their own, but also introduces them to subtle messages and themes.

The main theme is, of course, friendship. But the short stories are packed full of virtues like patience, bravery, resourcefulness and appreciation. But Frog and Toad are not perfect. The stories also gently demonstrate how they suffer from folly, arrogance and greed - but never in an overbearing way, always with a lovely whimsical inclination. I love that a 'first reader' book can show characters with bad qualities and imperfections. And while the books don't excuse these traits, they do show that they are a part of human (amphibian!?) nature, and perhaps how to move past them with more positive attributes.

But of course, what is really so lovely about these simple little stories is the depth of Frog and Toad's friendship. I can always see them, together in the countryside, keeping each other company and going on adventures and it always makes me feel kinds warm and fuzzy and a little nostalgic. My favourite Frog and Toad moment is in the story 'The Dream'. Toad is dreaming he is a great performer on stage, and Frog is watching him. With each act of Toad's spotlight-hogging brilliance, Frog gets smaller and smaller until he disappears, and Toad realises what is really important is not that he is the greatest or best, or even better than Frog, but just that Frog will always be there for him:

"Come back, Frog," he shouted. "I will be lonely!"

"I am right here," said Frog.

Frog was standing near Toad's bed. "Wake up, Toad," he said.

"Frog, is that really you?" said Toad.

"Of course it is me," said Frog.

"And are you your own right size?" asked Toad.

"Yes, I think so," said Frog.

Toad looked at the sunshine coming through the window. "Frog," he said, "I am so glad that you came over."

"I always do," said Frog.

Ted Goes Wild by Michael Wagner

First published in 2011 by Penguin

I love toys and teddies and dolls and especially when they all come to life. But Ted Goes Wild left me a little cold.

I found it strangely lacking in warmth and engagement for a children's first chapter book. I really wanted to care about Ted, because he's a cute little teddy that goes out having wild adventures and being brave and tough. But I just didn't.

The actual text I found a little flat as well; I found I wanted the descriptions and the dialogue to have more imagination. This is so important for a first chapter book. They aren't big on text, so imagination is high up there, or the writing perfectly pitched at the intended audience, or at least some kind of emotional resonance. For example, Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad chapter books are about as simple as they come, but something about those two old reptilians speaks to your emotions. I'm just not sure old Ted got there himself.

I did really enjoy the way it was designed - half told in text, half told in graphic novel. And Ted Goes Wild does have some nice themes about bravery and being resourceful and a child's attachment to their toys. I'm certainly attached to mine and I'm definitely no longer a child.

This teddy - not quite for me. But then again, you'd have to work pretty hard to knock Corduroy from his top spot in my heart.

Journey to the River Sea, by Eva Ibbotson

First published in 2001. This edition published in 2002, by Macmillan.

Maia, an orphan, is about to leave the boarding school she has grown up in and start a long sea voyage to Brazil. Up the Amazon River, she will begin a new life with her governess, Miss Minton, and relatives she has never met. In the jungle she will find exotic worlds under the canopy of trees, the colour and life of the local Indians, friendships and adventures like she has never had before. But it can’t all be good, of course, or where would the story be?

Journey to the River Sea is a lovely little story, rich and warm-hearted, with great doses of energy and imagination. The baddies get their come-uppance, the good guys get their happy ending, and everything in-between is uplifting and told with wisdom and humour.

I think perhaps because everything was just as it should be, that I didn’t quite love this as much as I hoped. I found it all just a little too nice and lacking in a bit of pizzazz; although at the same time I can’t really find anything wrong with it. It’s just there is never that sense of danger or intrigue, because I knew, from the tone of the book, that everything would always work out in the end.

I did enjoy the sly digs and knowing humour. It’s great the way Ibbotson took a stab at the ‘baddies’ whenever the opportunity arose – and it’s never nasty, just enough to show them up.

There is a great sense of discovery in Journey, both with Maia discovering what she is capable of, and of a strange and wonderful world waiting to be explored, if only you are brave enough to do so. Actually, the whole book is big on bravery. But the Amazon jungle has a very real presence here, and Ibbotson paints its humidity, its colour, its sound and its secrets with love and energy.

Maia has lots of spirit and enterprise but I really loved Miss Minton – the fearsome old governess with, really, a heart of gold. And not done in a sappy way either. Above all others, I wanted a happy ending for her.

An enjoyable story, with pleasant humour, racing adventure and overall a nicely satisfying quality. I want to read ten ‘children’s classics’ by the end of 2011. This was book one.