Ready... Set... Frog! - Katharine Mitropoulos - ★★★★.¼

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AUTHOR: Katharine Mitropoulos
ILLUSTRATOR: Laura Watson
GENRE: Children's Picture Book
RATING: 4.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: A delightful story with practical life lessons and adorable illustrations.


Frog loves games and challenges. When he hears of an obstacle course in an upcoming neighbourhood fair, he decides to practice hard for it. He builds his own obstacles, but just as he is about to practice, a neighbourhood animal asks Frog for his help. This happens multiple times and the whole day goes by with Frog not having practiced obstacles at all. Frog is quite frustrated with his situation, until his mom makes him realise a couple of important things.

Picture books are read either for education or for entertainment, but the best picture books find ways of combining both. This is one such case. Through Frog’s efforts at building up his skills, we see many amusing scenes, with the instances of “Ready…Set….FROG!” being the funniest. And through his actions and his disappointments, we learn, just as Frog does, some essential lessons such the importance of balancing between others’ needs and our own, the art of saying no, and the significance of determination and self-help. Through Frog’s performance in the obstacle course, we also learn the value of doing our best and being satisfied with the results instead of necessarily ranking as #1 in every race. Every single lesson is a valuable one, and the book doesn’t just stop at the ones I have mentioned. Almost every page has something to offer, if parents/guardians can sit with little readers and point these out.

While the story goes by pretty smoothly, it jumps over some necessary details. For instance, I would have liked to know how exactly Frog helped Cat return from across the pond – did they hop together, did he carry her? Also, in the current story, the book goes directly from the discussion scene with his Mum to the obstacle course race a few days later. I would have loved a couple more pages depicting how Frog incorporated his learnings the next day, i.e. how exactly he balanced helping others with completing his own work. These factors lowered my rating.

The story is written in a simple text with mostly small words. Each page has just two-three paragraphs. As such, the content will work well for early readers, aged 4-7 years.

I adore the illustrations. They are so nice and bright, filling the entire page with lovely pastel hues. I even loved the detailing in the background. Every animal is really cute, though not necessarily sketched in the right relative proportions. Most of all, I appreciate the choice of drawing Frog with spectacles. It breaks the cliché that sporty kids have perfect eyesight, or that kids wearing glasses can’t be great at games. The only thing I would change in the illustrations would be the cover art. It spoils a bit of the fun by revealing Frog’s performance in the obstacle race.

All in all, despite the minor areas of improvement, this is a marvellous book providing valuable morals as well as an enjoyable plot. It will work great for bedtime reading as well as classroom discussions.

My thanks to author Katharine Mitropoulos and BookSirens for the DRC of “Ready... Set... Frog!” This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

The book is available for free to Kindle Unlimited subscribers.

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