Frog in Winter

By Max Velthuijs

Frog is taken by surprise when winter comes. He doesn't understand why everything is covered with white and he skids and slips on the icy pond. He is too cold to take part in any of the joyous fun that Duck is having skating or that Hare is having throwing snowballs. The animals band together to equip Frog for enjoying winter, and later they share in his rejoicing when spring arrives.

'Frog is an inspired creation - a masterpiece of graphic simplicity.' - Guardian

• Language: English
• Publisher: Andersen Digital
• Release date: Sep 6, 2012
• ISBN: 9781849396080

Max Velthuijs

Max Velthuijs was born in The Hague in 1923, and died in 2005, aged 81. He is now considered to be one of Holland's most important creators of children's books, alongside Dick Bruna. He won several awards, including the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Medal 2004. He worked as an illustrator of posters, adverts and films after the war and only started working on children's books in the 1980s. He lived in The Hague with his son.

Book preview

[jljaina · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This poor frog. He wakes up one morning to find winter has arrived in full. Frozen water, snow everwhere, etc. All his furry and feathered friends are loving the change but for Frog it is much too much cold.

The kids felt so bad for the frog in this book. It was adorable! The strength of friendship that this book shows is just wonderful. The art is simple and they didn't seems to care for the way the frog was drawn. Even going so far as to say "Kermit the Lizard who lost his tail." Another kid thought is was Gumby. But otherwise it was highly enjoyed.

[docopperhead · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In this touching story, Frog's friends fail to see how he is suffering in the cold winter until it's almost too late. Fortunately, Duck, Pig and Hare are able to rally round and help him in time.I actually like the English translation better than the original Dutch because the translator choose to use the phrase "bare frog" instead of "naked frog". It just made it more poignant.Read it to an almost 3 year old who loved it.

[abigailadams26 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Frog experiences significant difficulties in adjusting to his first winter in this third entry in Max Velthuijs' Frog series, originally published in Dutch as Kikker in de kou. Waking up one cold morning, our ranine hero wanders out into the white landscape, becoming ever more distressed and disoriented. His friends, who are all better suited to this environment, fail to grasp the depth of his trouble at first, but, having discovered him collapsed in the snow, bring him home and nurse him back to health...

Like the first two Frog books - Frog in Love and Frog and the Birdsong - this charming picture-book explores an important issue in a non-didactic way, offering a gentle and reassuring take on a significant problem. Sometimes, we just don't listen to one another, and through that omission, we fail to grasp the gravity of a situation. This latter is particularly true of children, who may not understand all the dangers around them. Frog In Winter sees Pig, Duck and Hare making that mistake, initially, by failing to appreciate just how distressed Frog is, when it comes to the cold weather, but also sees them putting their error right, and helping to come up with a solution to the problem. With an engaging narrative, and sweetly adorable illustrations - Velthuijs' artwork has really been growing on me, as I read through more of his books! - this is a title I would recommend to young readers who have difficult adjusting to a particular season, or who have been ill.