Twister Chaser! Freddy the Frogcaster and the Terrible Tornado

FREDDY THE FROG WAS BACK AT THE FROG NEWS NETWORK, KEEPING HIS EYES ON THE SKY AND REHEARSING HIS WEATHER REPORT IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA.

That's fine fun for Freddy when the skies are fair, with blue skies over the little town of LilyPad. But today the weather is looking to be foul. A front is moving across the countyside and cold and warm air masses are colliding. That means it's time to start singin' "Stormy Weather."

LILYPAD IS IN FOR SOME DANGEROUS WEATHER!

Down at the TV station, a call comes in from Tad Polar, the local storm chaser with an invitation to ride shotgun with him in his Tadmobile and scan the skies for funnel-shaped clouds.

Freddy the Frog is a famous forecaster, and when there's talk of a twister, he's on it, poised to prognosticate.

Waving goodbye to his on-air colleagues, Sally Croaker and Polly Wroggins, Freddy the Frogcaster is off with Tad, who heads straight for the roiling bank of storm clouds to the west of Lilypad. Freddy focuses his binoculars on the weather front.  Suddenly, Tad points out a cloud and shouts a warning.

THAT'S A CUMULO NIMBUS!! THERE'S A FUNNEL CLOUD TOUCHING DOWN!

Freddy gets on the radio and broadcasts the warning!

"HOLY CROAKS, FOLKS!

TORNADO!"

Sally Croaker broadcasts the warning to the public. The town of Lilypad goes into emergency action. Storm sirens wail and people head for their shelters.

Tad the Intrepid and Freddy the Frogcaster are in the thick of it. But he's a pro and he stays on the job, firing a photo of the funnel cloud back the to the Frog News station as they trail the twister safely out of town.

It's a close encounter with a twister for our fearless forecaster, in Janice Dean's latest, Freddy the Frogcaster and the Terrible Tornado (Regnery Kids, 2016), another amphibian adventure of Freddy the Weather Frog. Author Dean, a TV meteorologist herself, works plenty of science into her story of storm chasing that will fit right into classroom primary science units on weather. And again artist Ross Cox provides the funny froggy illustrations of Freddy's forecasting feats, as he did in the other books in this series, Freddy the Frogcaster, Freddy the Frogcaster and the Huge Hurricane, and Freddy the Frogcaster and the Big Blizzard.