In The Small, Small Pond by Denise Fleming

A frog as a leitmotif, splishing, splashing in the small, small pond. Through the parade of animals, through the change of seasons, the frog is a constant. Sometimes hard to spot, and that adds to the fun for the young readers.

The colors are true to the time of the year—the greens and yellows of summer when tadpoles wriggle and geese parade, changing to the browns of autumn and then onto the winter freeze. The illustrations show how each season has its colors, its creatures.

What adds to the richness of the book is the ease with which Denise Fleming uses language. Here we have onomatopoeia and alliteration:

"drowse, doze, eyes close"

"splitter, splatter, minnows scatter"

"click, clack, claws crack"

A limited vocabulary, but an object lesson to the young reader on how words can make pictures too.

Each page a demonstration of a skilled wordsmith at work.