RIBBITING TALES

From Jane Yolen’s froggy Pied Piper remake to “A Boy and His Frog,” by David Lubar (designer of the Game-Boy version of “Frogger”), about a lad who releases his oversized pet into the local swamp after it eats a neighbor’s Chihuahua, these eight new tales will make a big splash with middle readers. The tone, reflected in DiTerlizzi’s Homer Price–like drawings of cheerful, high-stepping children and bulging, inscrutable amphibians, is generally light. It changes toward the end with Stephen Menick’s anguished Pharaoh’s-eye view of the Seven Plagues of Egypt before bouncing back up with Springer’s closer, “Ahem,” in which a shy, harassed child turns jeers to cheers by going to school with a loudly assertive frog in her throat. Invite readers to follow Bruce Coville’s shape-changing superhero Dennis Juggarum in releasing their own inner frogs with this kickin’ collection. (Short stories. 8-11)