Tuesday, August 3, 2010

WHAT THE HECK IS THAT??? (and a review)

One of the joys of being a Children's Librarian, who is commonly known to like animals, is that when people need a home for an animal they automatically think of you. Over the years Miss Ami has been the recipient of countless hamsters, guinea pigs, lizards, baby birds, orphaned rabbits, injured turtles, etc. This morning she came in to find this on her desk:

Wow.

She did know he was coming, and had set up a cage and left instructions with the night crew.

We may need a bigger cage (no fear, amphibian lovers, one is coming).

I mean, they said it was big, but...wow! We have seen (and had) big frogs and toads before, but not running loose in southern New Mexico. Does anybody recognize this guy? We are pretty sure he's a toad, and have named him Bufo, thanks to two great books:




We love this series from Capstone, which includes alligators/crocodiles, butterflies/moths, and leopards/cheetahs. Many nonfiction books don't make for great read-alouds, but these do, and they answer the questions countless kids (and adults) have very clearly and thoroughly. The pictures, by Bandelin-Dacey, are not only attractive, they enhance the descriptions perfectly.

For a name, of course, we could go no further than:



LOVE LOVE LOVE the Magic Shop series by Bruce Coville, and wish there were more! The best one, and a permanent fixture on our recommended reading list, is Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher . Our Library dragon (a large plush dragon used as a seat, pillow, and wrestling partner until Miss Ami catches you), is even named Tiamat, after the dragon in that story.
 
So, we know his name, and we are pretty sure he's a toad, but...what kind of toad??? Any armchair herpetologists (or anyone with more time to research than we have today) out there???


UPDATE:

Okay, after a little googling, we think it's actually a plain old (but HUGE) American bullfrog - which would change his name to Rana. But we still love the books:)

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