Do The Right Thing! Frog on a Log by Kes Gray

"HEY, FROG!" SAID CAT.

"SIT ON A LOG!"

"I DON'T WANT TO SIT ON A LOG. THEY HAVE SPLINTERS," SAID FROG.

But Cat is adamant. This is way things are done. Cats get to sit on mats; hares on chairs, mules on stools, and gophers on sofas. So frogs have to sit on logs. Get the picture?

"THAT DOESN'T SOUND VERY COMFORTABLE," SAID FROG.

"IT'S NOT ABOUT BEING COMFORTABLE," SAID CAT.

"IT'S ABOUT DOING THE RIGHT THING."

Never mind logic. Cat drones on with her list of unlikely but proper seating. Fleas on peas, cows on plows, snakes on cakes, gorillas on pillars, on and on.

Frog is enjoying trying to trip up Cat, but the feline expert has got a million of them, as his rhyming rules get sillier and sillier. Parrots on carrots? Seriously? But Frog's got the log, so he comes up with what he thinks is the perfect stumper for Cat.

"WHAT DO DOGS SIT ON?"

"I WAS AFRAID YOU WERE GOING TO ASK THAT!" SAID CAT.

Kes Gray's fantastically funny Frog on a Log? (Scholastic Press, 2015) has it all--wonderful wordplay, a spot of irony, and an appealing rhyming-word story that will keep young emergent readers in the game all the way through. But artist Jim Field gets the last, er, word on assigned seating on the last (and appropriately wordless) page where Dog gingerly takes his seat on. . . Frog! Delightful illustrations and predictable rhymes will have youngsters in stitches, chiming in on the rhymes as the story comes down to its unexpected but satisfying ending in a story that Dr. Seuss would envy. "Easy-to-read rhyming fun. From the hilarious endpapers, where the frog is cast in many poses, including reading the newspaper while on the toilet, readers know they are in for an irreverent treat," says Kirkus Reviews in their starred review.