You've met the parents

here

now meet some of their offspring -

we reckon about a million of them.

This book was a beautiful but curious introduction to the life story of the frog.

Albert Shiels, Professor Emeritus of Education at Teacher's College, Columbia University wrote in the preface in 1932,

' What children need first is to know, to understand, and especially to feel, and feel abundantly. It is not through text book cataloguing of facts that children come to know and to love Nature. 

For those children who are unable to have outdoor adventures, Wagtail will take the place of these adventures; and for those more fortunate children who have observed the actual happenings in and about a country pool, Wagtail will answer all the questions that inevitably result, by making their observations into a story.

It is pleasant to note that ...authors, artist, and publisher seem to have been of one mind in believing that children, too, are people of judgement, competent to enjoy a fine book.'

The only trouble was that Groundhogs, Turtles and Blue Herons didn't feature on any of my

nature walks; the robins looked more like thrushes and the 'glistening black snake as thick as a fat milkweed stock' could have come straight from the Just So Stories.