HOPTOAD
Illustrated by Karen Lee Schmidt
Harcourt 2003
ISBN# 0-15-216352-2 Harcourt hardcover

HOPTOAD is one of the shortest picture books (if not the shortest) I have ever written.But the pictures by Karen Schmidt give it a longer story. The piece began as a silly rhyme which I thought might be a board book, but my editor had broader (wider?) thoughts and so it became a picture book.

A Junior Library Guild book; starred reviews in Booklist and Kirkus.

Available in the hardcover.

What reviewers have said: "Fun for new readers, the book also serves as a quick read-aloud for preschoolers, who will thrive on the suspense." School Library Journal

"Psychedelic desert skies add a surreal touch to this suspenseful, appealingly understated story of tragedy narrowly averted." Booklist