My father also read this book to me, and it was another of the earliest I read for myself. It was the second book I could call a favorite. This book also had no paper cover, but a hard sandy-brown cover. All the interior artwork was in blacks and white, but the picture I liked best was like the one shown in this example.

A stubborn codger of a bullfrog encounters great embarrassments and receives undeserved mercies.

The Thornton Burgess series in general is quite an endearing series of children's books, which do a fine job of being readable by young readers and having interesting plots and introducing young people to a variety of animals in a semi-anthropomorphized way. This particular entry, "The Adventures of Grandfather Frog" is about par for the series, and it's a delightful read for a youngster, or for an older person who is willing to be a child again for the hour or so that it would take to read it.

I can never read Burgess without thinking how his stories just go rollicking along so quickly you can hardly keep up with them. Such a delightful read-- almost as much fun reading it aloud to my own daughter as it was to have my dad read it to me at bedtimes long ago. Chug-a-rum, Grandfather Frog, I say!

The Thornton W. Burgess novels are strange. Their drama is fueled by readers’ fear for what will happen to various anthropomorphized prey animals who, despite Mother Nature’s red teeth and claws, wear folksy little coattails and one-strap overalls. We don’t want to see any lil cuties eaten, but especially not that beaver in the bespoke vest! Yet here in The Adventures of Grandfather Frog, what do we see IN THE VERY FIRST ILLUSTRATION hanging from the mouth of our eponymous grenouille grand-père? The legs of one “foolish green fly.” Wearing pants.

I loved these books as a boy, and still do. The Adventures of Grandfather Frog is the eighth of The Bedtime Story books written by Thornton Burgess and lovingly illustrated by Harrison Cady. The stories were read to my brother and I by my father when we were kids just before bedtime, so in all fairness they carry a great sense of nostalgia.

Here, in this book, Grandfather Frog feels challenged by the fact that his entire life has been spent in the Smiling Pond. As he hears the stories as told by the denizens of the Green Meadow, he feels the weight of his years spent in only one place. Boasting to his neighbors that he can still enjoy adventures outside his comfort zone, he leaves the Green Meadow only to experience the challenges of unfamiliar places, uncommon obstacles, and unfriendly potential predators.

These stories are really innocent tales of a community of animals in the Green Meadow akin to the Road Runner vs. Wile E. Coyote cartoons. As a consequence, my boys did not enjoy these books as much as I did. The world of these books, although to my mind still relevant, may seem indistinguishable to jaded youth. However, I consider these books classic (which means they meet my three criteria of paradigm defining, exceptionalism, and longevity).

Read aloud with Lucy.

I really like these books as a read around to the kids and the kids enjoy them too

Read as a kid

A delightful book of short stores, great for kids bedtime reading, about Grandfather Frog and his adventures in Smiley Pond, his home, and what happens when his cousin the Toad convinces him life is better in the great big world. The misadventures of what happens to Grandfather Frog is quite entertaining….and what happens when he’s out of water! A lot included about nature, feelings, habitat. Anyone liking or wondering about frogs should enjoy this read!

All of my kids said this was one of their favorites. 4.5 stars

favorite quote:
________
"Dear me! Dear me! What a terrible thing and how useless anger is," said Grandfather Frog, as he climbed back on his big green lily-pad in the warm sunshine."
- Thornton W. Burgess, The Adventures of Grandfather Frog (1915) - ch. 6