Kirkus Review

A war between dragons and frogs is settled by an unlikely pair of friends this epistolary

debut picture and coloring book by Carter and Hildebrandt. 

The Story

Beginning with the conceit that Carter has found the letters transcribed in the story while on a forest walk, the tale of frogs and dragons is recounted by two animal pen pals: optimistic Forest Squirrel and Beach Bird , who regularly repeats the traditional forest rhyme in which dragons and frogs "will never, ever be friends!" Dragons find frogs to be a favorite delicacy, and so the frogs hide at the bottom of Deep Pond.  Because the dragons regularly start  forest fires, the animals all live in fear.

When Dragon Mama lays an egg, the forest animals hope that something will change.

Indeed it does when her mate Throckmorton gets bored with egg sitting and inadvertency sends the gg to the bottom of Deep Pond. it's only with the help of Melville, the frog, that Throckmorton can save his egg.

Forest Squirrel believes that their cooperation will lead to a new era of peace in the forest and, eventually, even Beach Bird is convinced that dragons and frogs can actually find a way to get along.

The Book

Every pair of letters is broken up by a large illustration and chapter page, making chunks more manageable for beginning readers. who may stumble over names like Throckmorton.  The vocabulary is geared toward early independent readers, and the coloring action in the back section, including the ink outlines of Hildebrand's full-color illustrations, give readers a chance to recreate the story in their own color scheme's.

While some plot elements are hard to swallow (dragon eggs take 300 years to hatch and 200 hundred years pass without Forest Squirrel writing Beach Bird a letter, which seems unnecessarily a long time for the context of the story)  the overall theme of friendship rings true.

A sweet narrative about frogs and dragons finding peace by helping each other, compete with coloring pages, will enchant beginning readers.