BAD FROGS

Going one-up on such solitary malfeasants as the wolf-suited Max and Rosemary Wells’s Noisy Nora, here no fewer than 170 frogs in human dress tumble, dash, skate and sail across the pages, “Smelling yucky. Talking crummy. Wearing bad hats. Wearing dark glasses. Staying up late. Kissing their girlfriends.” “Bad frogs,” opines Hurd. “Very bad frogs.” The author’s reach exceeds his grasp, however, as aside from some hijinks at the table (“Ick-ums,” says the disapproving mother frog as her brood belches happily) and in the tub, there is very little misbehavior actually on view. Still, children will delight in the idea—as well as the general visual hyperactivity in the art and the text’s rollicking cadences, which, when read aloud a number of times, could make for a rousing chant-along. (Picture book. 5-7)