Teresa Bateman

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.… (más)