A big-mouthed frog hops around the rainforest near the border of Argentina and Brazil in this folktale retelling, bragging to every animal he meets—a toco toucan, a coati, and a capybara—about his skill at catching flies. When he meets a jaguar, and discovers that this new acquaintance likes to eats frogs(!), our acrine hero suddenly has no time for more bragging, high-tailing it home as fast as he can go...

An amusing story that highlights the foolishness of boasting, The Frog with the Big Mouth is apparently a retelling of a tale told to author Teresa Bateman while she was living in Argentina. For this reason I have categorized it as "Argentine folklore," although no further information is given as to source material. There is a similar folk story from the southern United States, The Wide-Mouthed Frog, but as to the relationship (if any) between the tales—do they have a common origin/ur story, did they originate separately, is one just a transplanted version of the other?—that I do not know, and have not been able to discover (although I'd love to find out). In any case, the tale related here is engaging, with a repetitive structure in which the frog praises himself, asks the animals he encounters about what they eat, and is then answered in rhyme. The accompanying illustrations from Will Terry are vividly colorful, and quite expressive, capturing the humor of the story. The book closes with some information about the animal species mentioned, offering a nice non-fictional counterpart to the fictional tale. Recommended to young folktale enthusiasts, and to anyone seeking froggy reading fare for the picture book set. ( )

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There once was a frog with a big mouth, a mouth so big he hopped around the rainforest bragging to any animal he saw. He bragged to a Toco Toucan, a Coati, a Capybaras, and a Jaguar telling them that he was the frog with the biggest mouth and exclaiming, "don't you wish you were me?" While I was reading this book I was struggling to really find a theme or moral that stood out to me. After reading and dissecting the details of the book I realized this book is fun and educational folklore. They author meant for readers and children to get a vivid image in their head of the rainforest and animals that live their. Every new animal that this frog meets, the author describes how the animal looks and the illustrations show what kind of habitat they live in. The style of this book is animated and unique. The text has a words that are written in different fonts, different shapes, and different angles. This text is almost a lot like the frog's personality; quirky, spastic, and energetic. Although this is a short book, it does not lack personality. This is a fun and interactive book that children will love. ( )

This is a new, beautiful version of the Wide Mouthed Frog story. In this version, there is a frog that lives in the rainforest in Brazil. He eats a huge fly and decides that he just ate the biggest frog in the world and everyone should be jealous of that! His family is not impressed, so he goes off to find someone who will be impressed. He comes across several animals, all of which live in the rainforests of Brazil and none of which eat flies. They each talk about what they DO eat and let the frog know they don’t care about the fly. The last animal he encounters is a jaguar who tells the frog that big mouth frogs are his favorite thing to eat. The frog hops so high up into a tree that now he decides that he is the frog with the big jump and everyone should be jealous of him! It is humorous and educational and the illustrations are gorgeous. ( )