Frog: A Story of Life on Earth is the third absorbing, flawless nonfiction picture book collaboration between author Isabel Thomas and illustrator Daniel Egnéus (Moth; Fox), this time linking the evolution of frogs to the origins of the universe.
A child with a net wades through "a pond full of jelly-like eggs" that will one day grow legs and become "frogs that lay eggs of their own." The ensuing chicken-and-egg question--"if frogs come from eggs, and eggs come from frogs, where did the first frog come from?"--proves the perfect jumping-off point for a journey back in time. The text reverses to a period before frogs and people, all the way "back to the beginning" when time began, and then back even further to when "everything that is, was, and ever will be was squashed together in a superheated speck too tiny to imagine."
That speck expands with a Big Bang to become the universe, "still small enough to hold in your hands" and "fizz[ing] with energy." But "there were no frogs yet." Time begins with new "tiny specks of stuff" that appear, "dashing and veering, colliding, disappearing," as the universe cools and forms atoms. The atoms gather into huge, hot clouds and create even bigger atoms. Billions of years later, these first stars explode, and their stardust is "the stuff that forms new stars and planets." Included in this star-stuff is Earth, a planet with a "not too hot, and not too cool" surface that collects rain "in dips and dents." In one pond "something spectacular" happens. Chemicals form the first cell, which multiplies and evolves into larger forms of life, "from sponges to sea squirts to fish that laid eggs," and from there into "the ancestors of every animal with four limbs," amphibians, including frogs.
Thomas expertly distills massive ideas into tangible facts in a dynamic text that wisely includes both a child stand-in and repeatedly returns to frogs as the touchpoint for exploring the universe. Egnéus's mixed-media illustrations are striking, featuring over-saturated colors and shapes that exude energy and motion. The art is so inventive and nearly neon that it demands viewers' attention. Back matter tells "the [greatly abridged] Story of Everything" in one final supplementary spread offering a bit more context. This clever, fascinating approach to evolution is told through the undeniably child-friendly lens of frogs, who are, clearly, nothing less than "the story of the universe." --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger, and children's book author
Shelf Talker: Dynamic and captivating, Frog: A Story of Life on Earth links the evolution of frogs with the origins of the universe.