Ready… Set… Frog!, by Katharine Mitropoulos | Dedicated Review

Book Review of Ready… Set… Frog!
Sponsored | All opinions are our own
The Children’s Book Review

What to Expect: Practice, helping others, competition, friends

With so many stories emphasizing being kind, helping others, and supporting your community, young people sometimes don’t often hear enough that it’s okay to say “no” sometimes.

Frogathon Spots (Frog for short) loves challenges. When his mom tells him an obstacle course will be at the neighborhood fair this year, Frog is determined to practice and win. Unfortunately, every time he tries to practice one of his obstacle course skills, he gets interrupted by his friends. Mole needs his help reaching an apple from the top of the tree. Giraffe needs help with his hat. Kitten needs to be rescued from the pond. Frog spends so much time helping his friends that he never finds time to practice! With his second-place trophy, Frog vows to find time for his friends and himself next year. 

Ready… Set… Frog! teaches young readers that it is okay and even essential to balance your consideration for others with your own needs and models planning as a tool for managing that balance. At the same time, the ending normalizes the idea that winning is not the most important thing in life. Sunny, colorful illustrations underscore the happiness that Frog’s actions bring to his friends and keep the mood upbeat, while the creative use of fonts also adds interest to the reading process. 
A fun and cheerful story, Ready… Set… Frog! is a great picture book for teaching children about consideration for themselves and others.

Buy the Book

About the Author

Katharine Mitropoulos is a wife and a mom of two who lives with her family in Michigan. She is a trained speech-language pathologist. Her degrees in psychology, speech-language pathology, and linguistics sparked her interest in children’s literature. When she’s not writing books about Frog and his friends, you can find Katharine building furniture in her family woodshop, eating ice cream with rainbow sprinkles, or running road races all over the state.

For more information, visit: https://www.setsailpress.com/.

About the Illustrator

Laura Watson lives and works in downtown Toronto, Ontario, with her husband, teenage daughter, and a big orange dog named Red. A childhood spent drawing, painting, and making crafts led to art school to pursue studies in fine art and illustration. Since then, Laura has created lighthearted and whimsical illustrations for children’s books and magazines, textiles and stationery, and various children’s toys and puzzles. Laura works in her cozy studio tucked in a corner of a 130-year-old Gothic Revival office building that may or may not be haunted. In her spare time, she runs at the beach, reads, and takes long, adventurous walks with her dog.

Dedicated Reviews allow authors and illustrators to gain prompt visibility for their work. This is a sponsored, non-biased review of Ready… Set… Frog! . Learn more about getting a book review …