We Rank Our 10 Favorite Frog and Toad Stories
I am a Frog and Toad superfan—I grew up reading Arnold Lobel’s touching, funny books about friendship and taught my kids to read with them. I’ve even been to the musical production based on the Frog and Toad stories. Yes, I’ve paid money to see a grown man dressed as a frog perform a soft-shoe dance. If you love all the Frog and Toad stories as much as I do, it might seem like a sacrilege to rank them. But the golden rule of the Internet is that all things must be ranked, and so, here goes my attempt.
- “The Garden” from Frog and Toad Together
Many of the Frog and Toad stories are parables about patience—waiting for your friend to wake up so you can play, waiting for the letter in the mail that never comes, and in this case, waiting for seeds to sprout in the garden.
- “Tomorrow” from Days with Frog and Toad
Procrastinators love this story, in which Toad realizes that his house is a mess, but plans to deal with it tomorrow. When he thinks about all that he will have to do tomorrow, he becomes depressed, so Frog encourages him to get his work done today.
- “A List” from Frog and Toad Together
Toad decides to finally get his act together through that self-help cure-all: a list. Things are going pretty well with Toad making his list and checking off tasks, until a gust of wind carries the list away, leaving Toad totally discombobulated. This story is a shout out to all checklist-a-teers.
- “A Swim” from Frog and Toad Are Friends
Toad wears an old-timey, full-length, striped bathing suit with suspenders. Worth the price of admission, right there.
- “The Hat” from Days with Frog and Toad
Frog gives Toad a hat for his birthday that is too large, and Frog suggests he take it back and give Toad something else. “No,” Toad insists. “This hat is your present to me. I like it. I will wear it the way it is.” So Toad goes around, unable to see, until Frog sneaks into his house in the night and shrinks the hat with water. Now that’s friendship.
- “The Surprise” from Frog and Toad All Year
When Frog and Toad see the leaves all over their yards, they decide to rake them into neat piles—but not their own leaves. They each decide to secretly tidy up the yard of their friend. That night the wind wrecks their piles, but each goes to sleep thinking of how happy the other will be to see the yard work already done. The yards might be messy again, but Frog and Toad’s friendship is forever secure.
- “Cookies” from Frog and Toad Together
Frog and Toad never seem more human than in this story in which Toad bakes cookies and then finds that he and Frog are unable to stop eating them. They decide they need “will power,” and end up feeding the remaining cookies to the birds, with plans to make a cake later.
- “The Letter” from Frog and Toad Are Friends
When champion friend Frog learns that Toad is sad because he never gets any mail, Frog rushes home to write Toad a letter. And then gives it to a snail to deliver. Best laid plans, etc.
- “Spring” from Frog and Toad Are Friends
Who among us, upon waking to the peal of an alarm clock, hasn’t wanted to sleep for an extra month and a half? When eager Frog tries to wake Toad from hibernation in April, Toad rolls over to sleep until half past May.
- “Alone” from Days with Frog and Toad
This story takes top honors because it depicts a friendship evolved to its highest level, with friends that appreciate that sometimes the other needs time alone. One day when Toad visits Frog’s house, he sees a note informing him that Frog wants to spend the day alone. Toad doesn’t understand why he would want to do such a thing, and determines to visit him. Frog explains that being alone gives him time to appreciate their friendship, but he’s happy to see Toad after a morning alone. “They were two close friends sitting alone together,” Lobel writes.
Did your favorite Frog and Toad story make this list?