“Saamuuell” yelled my mom. “Whaaaat” I replied. “It’s time for bed” So I ran up the stairs clomp clomp clomp, grabbed a book zonk, and jump into bed bwok. “Can we read Froggy again?” I would ask. My mother sighed and started to read, “Froggy Gets Dressed. By Jonathan London and illustrated by Frank Remkiewicz… .” With oodles of onomatopoeia and marvelous illustrations, the adventures of Froggy became my most cherished childhood book series; however, looking back of these books one stuck out more than the rest - Froggy Gets Dressed.

This book follows a young frog, named Froggy, as he gets ready to play outside in the snow. However, Froggy, paralleling an excited preschooler, was absent-mindedly rushing to get outside, thus he forgets to put on some articles of clothes before going to play outdoors. But similar to a preschooler, Froggy was forced back inside by his mother to put on all of his winter outfit.

The most notable reasons why I love this book is because of London’s use of imagery and onomatopoeia to create an easily relatable plot. For example, lines like “Turning more red in the face than green” and “zoop! … zup! … zat! … zwit! … zum!” allows the reader to recall an experience in which they can sympathize with Froggy, from being embarrassed by a parent to occasionally replicating the sound of everyday objects makes. In the plot summary the author goes as far as to say he was trying to create a “familiar ritual” and with his use of figurative language, the familiar ritual was further created.

Another reason I cherish this book is that of the illustrations. Most children’s literature has images with simple elegance and Froggy is no exception. From the images of Froggy jumping out of bed to the depiction of his exasperation as he is forced to come back inside, we can clearly tell how Froggy is feeling through not only the text but also the character’s facial expression and motions. Beyond portraying emotion in the images, I started to notice there was a secret story going on in the background; a group of animals was building a snowman while Froggy struggling to get dressed. Even when Froggy went inside, the animals kept working on the snowman and when Froggy was red with embarrassed, the other animals are seen bawling with laughter at Froggy expense.

Froggy Gets Dressed was one of my favorite books to read during my childhood because of both the figurative language and detailed drawings. However, this book is not for everyone because of the lower reading level. Since this book is gaged for a younger audience, the word choice and sentence structure are on the weaker side for more advanced readers. Taking all of these factors into account, and despite the fact that I loved this book as a child, I would not recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a complex read, as it is really only meant to be a bedtime story.