FROGGY GOES TO THE DOCTOR

A lightweight addition to the often charming Froggy canon. Froggy has to go for his annual check-up at the doctor’s office. At first he’s happy about this, for it means a day off from school. Then he remembers that it might also mean a shot and his enthusiasm quickly dampens. It’s not long, however, before the rambunctious frog is giving the doctor the Froggy business: making the doctor’s hair curl with his dead-fly breath (“I guess I forgot to brush,” he admits), yelling into the stethoscope, accidentally delivering a blow to the doctor’s chops when his reflexes are tested. The doctor does turn the tables when she brandishes the hypodermic, but she’s only kidding and Froggy escapes without puncture. It is all very airy—though energized by Remkiewicz’s bustling watercolors—and fairly aimless as well. There is very little meat for kids to chew on in this story, little even by way of entertainment. Froggy is typically good at offering a little direction to young readers—about sportsmanship, for instance, or how not to eat in restaurants—but no such is tendered here, be it positive or negative example, except for a slight introduction to the event. (Picture book. 2-5)