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Dingo Toad Helps a Friend by Lamar Golden and Liana Golden (Book Review)

Join Dingo Toad on an inspiring adventure in Dingo Toad Helps a Friend. In this heartwarming tale, Dingo Toad discovers the true meaning of friendship and bravery when his friend Penny faces bullies. With a big heart and a courageous spirit, Dingo Toad stands up to the bullies and teaches us all valuable lessons about kindness, resilience, and standing up for what’s right.

Perfect for young readers, this beautifully illustrated book not only entertains but also provides important life lessons on dealing with bullies and being a good friend. Share this wonderful story with your children and help them understand that everyone has the power to make a difference.

Dingo Toad Helps a Friend is a must-read for any child who has ever faced a bully or wanted to help someone in need. Let Dingo Toad inspire your little ones to be brave and compassionate in the face of adversity.


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(review request submitted by the author for an honest critique) 

 

Dingo Toad lived in the southern swamp region of planet Venesha. This uniquely illustrative character’s fashion sense resembled what Earthlings wear daily: t-shirt, shorts, and open-toed shoes. Dingo was also sporting a white mohawk. Nice hairdo!

While the alien’s style was something you’d see here on our planet, Dingo had features that definitely screamed Alien! For one, Dingo had large yellow spots covering their teal skin. They also had a toad-shaped face with two oversized eyes and mouth, two holes for nostrils, a purple tongue, three large toes on each foot, and four fingers on each hand.

While Dingo Toad looked different than you or me, they enjoyed many of the same things as us. Dingo looked very adorable playing in the bubble bath. I found it cute that Dingo was listening to his mom read him Nortis Goes Swimming—another book by Lamar and Liana Golden. Dingo shared one important similarity with humans: their planet, like ours, had bullies. When Dingo saw his friend, Penny, being bullied by Sangu and Piman, he did not hurry away. Dingo didn’t throw punches, either. He, very sternly, demanded they apologize for being “meanies,” which they did immediately.

Unfortunately, kids will encounter bullies during their school years. Maybe they will be the target, or perhaps they’ll witness someone else being harassed. No matter the situation, kids should follow Dingo’s example —use your words, not your fists. Not every bully apologizes as quickly as they did in this story. That is where the extended lesson on how to deal with bullies should be addressed with your child or class. Ask kids what they would do if their friend is being bullied, and the “meanies” don’t stop when asked.

Dingo Toad Helps a Friend is a wonderful sci-fi children’s book that shows the importance of standing up to bullies and the power of our words. I loved every colorful and imaginative illustration. The wild and wacky zoo animals were my favorite! Even though I won’t be placing flies in my ice cream or other foods any time soon, I even thought the bug-infused desserts were cute, too.

Check out this and every book featured on the planet, Venesha!

Amazon’s recommended reading age is baby-12 years.


Heart Rating System:

1 (lowest) and 5 (highest) 
Score: 

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Meet the Authors

Lamar:  I am a Navy Veteran who has traveled the world, met wonderful people and have enjoyed the culture, diversity and cuisines from around the world. I enjoy making up stories with my daughter to pass time and love to smoke ribs, brisket and any other meat or fish that I think would taste good.

I love hunting and fishing and believe in passing on lessons learned down to the younger generation. My motto is reach for the stars and see where it takes you.

 

Liana:  Second grade student who enjoys playing with friends, going to KidZania & Disneyland, learning at school and spending time with my mom and dad.  I love the zoo, learning about nature which my dad alw

 

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The Clever Toad: The Race by Danny Wilson (Book Review)


Thomas Find, a toad, has known Princess Tina, a frog, his whole life. The two grew up together and fell in love. But Tina’s father, the King, does not approve of Tina marrying a toad, even if he is a well-respected, hard-working toad like Thomas. So the King chooses two frog suitors for his daughter. Thomas refuses to give up his true love though, so he seeks a way to win her hand. When he comes across an old marriage law, he thinks he just may have a chance, but it will take careful planning and a bit of creativity. Thomas is willing to try anything and so the king agrees to a race for his daughter’s hand in marriage, and the race is on.

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I received a complimentary copy of this book from Reedsy Discovery. I voluntarily chose to read and post an honest review.

 

The Clever Toad: The Race by Danny Wilson is labeled for baby – 12 years on Amazon. Some story components should work for each birth year within that wide age bracket. For example, babies and toddlers will enjoy the fun, colorful frogs and toads. The text, however, is more suitable for pre-k and up.

“The Clever Toad: The Race” contains a great deal of text, so please keep that in mind if you are reading to a young child with a limited attention span.

If your child is just starting to read, the overall text used might prove difficult except for common words such as “and,” “the,” “make,” “ran,” “day,” “to,” and “out” etc. However, I think children (3-6) will love listening to the story being read to them. The frog race to win the princess’ hand in marriage was a cute theme. Bread will flies baked in it—not so much. However, I did eat cricket salsa once, and it was good. Oh, and cookies with bugs baked into them. Also good. FYI: I was at an insectarium where samples were served for the brave visitors. It’s not like I’m always collecting and eating bug-infused food.

Older children should be able to read all the text with no problem, especially 10-12-year-olds. They might think the images are too kiddish for them, though.

If you’re an elementary teacher and decide to share “The Clever Toad: The Race” with your class, there are plenty of challenging words that you can use for spelling or a glossary test. You might also consider having relay races outside. Maybe set up an obstacle course.

“The Clever Toad: The Race” by Danny Wilson is a book you can read for many years, which I liked. Many books are for a certain age, and then there are just collecting dust on a shelf. I think this book will be read time and time again. No dusting needed. 🙂

 

Heart Rating System:
1 (lowest) and 5 (highest) 
Score: ❤❤

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