Friendship, although conceptually understood by the youngest of children, is one of those things that seems elusive when we try to explain it fully. It is multi-faceted, complicated and one of the best aspects of a rich life. Friendship has been a topic in literature from the Bible to Thoreau, who wrote an entire essay considering friendships and its meanings. Modern literature explores many aspects of friendships, both good and bad, but the simple yet meaningful friendships portrayed in children’s stories are some of the most memorable and none more so than the lovable Frog and Toad. This exploration into the character of Frog, one of the most well-loved characters of all time, reveals what truly makes a good friend.
Frog and Toad are inseparable friends created by the author Arnold Lobel. He wrote four books about the lovable twosome, Frog and Toad are Friends, Frog and Toad Together, Frog and Toad All Year, and Days with Frog and Toad. These two amphibians have unique characteristics. Frog is very friendly and laid back than while Toad is the more serious and touchy of the duo, but they share a genuine affection for one another. Frog has many humorous and often touching adventures with Toad, in many of which Frog models how to be a faithful friend. He regularly shows patience, loyalty, wisdom and selflessness as he interacts with Toad and the other animals in their acquaintance. They learn to fly a kite together, bake (and try not to eat) cookies, and wait for seeds to grow. In the story The Letter from Frog and Toad are Friends, Frog encourages his friend by, not only, sending him a letter but also trying to keep his spirits up while he waits for the mail to come (Lobel, 1979).
Frog is a creature who likes simple ...
... middle of paper ...
... be there through thick and thin.
Robert Louis Stevenson once said, "...no man is useless while he has a friend" (as cited in BrainyQuote, 2011). Surely the same must hold true for an amphibian. Frog is an example to all species of loyalty, love and companionship. He exemplifies kindness and stability. Sometimes it takes the joyful ease of a children’s book, like the Frog and Toad series, to reveal the basic simplicity of the principles of life.
References
BrainyQuote.com. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/ robertloui155203.html
Lobel, A. (1979). Frog and Toad are friends. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers
Milne, A. (1927). Now we are six. New York, NY: Dutton Children's Books.
Wilde, D., Crane, D., Skloff, M., Kauffman, M., Solem, P., & Willis, A. (1995). I'll be there for you. On LP [CD]. Rembrandts (Group).
Mistakes can seriously impact the people who make them; however, the effects are not always negative. In the book, Whirligig, by Paul Fleischman, a teenage boy named Brent is the new kid in town and he faces some major problems with his peers. After being pushed around, treated like a pawn, and utterly rejected, Brent tries to commit suicide by taking his hands off the wheel of his moving car. Although Brent’s attempt is not successful, his actions still have a tragic ending- Lea, a young, kind, beautiful girl, is unlucky enough to be in the car that Brent crashes into. The car accident results in Lea’s death, but also the start of Brent’s magical journey of redemption. Brent’s task is to travel to the four corners of the country, build and display whirligigs, and keep Lea’s spirit alive. Though Brent may not realize it, the trip does influence him in many different ways, one major change being Brent’s newfound ability to create strong relationships with a variety of people that he meets during the course of his adventure. Throughout Brent’s journey, Paul Fleischman uses the people that Brent interacts with to portray the idea that friendships can be formed regardless of personality type, race, and age.
A friendship is a special relationship between peoples , It occurs between friend that care about each other. In talking about friendship , the novella from John Steinbeck “Of Mice and Men”. Two friends George and Lennie ,they are trying to find a job together to complete their dream of having a farm. But Lennie is an adult size with a child's mind, he gets in trouble a lot and as his friend, George helping him solve the problem and taking care of Lennie. Later George and Lennie finds a new job , but George lies to the boss about the problem that Lennie has.
Theme: Situations and surroundings can shatter the innocence of friendship, but more the identity of the individuals.
One literary device Rodman Philbrick uses the reveal the theme of the importance of friendship is characterization, what Max thinks. In the story when the first
“Sometimes we don’t get along with friends, but when we need a shoulder to lean on we know they will always be there.” In The Outsiders by S.E Hinton Ponyboy goes through some awful times during his fourteenth year, but he knew he always had his friends by his side. “ I’d never liked Dally, but then for the first time I felt like he was my buddy. And all because he was glad he hadn’t killed me.” Ponyboy was pleased he had Dally as his friend because without Dally saving him from the fire he could’ve died. In this quote Ponyboy and Dally didn’t get along with each other at first, but when Dally helped him he felt like Dally was his buddy. Ponyboy knows that Dally will always be by his side no matter what. At the end, we may not always agree with our friends but we know that they will cheer you up and care for you no matter
Friendship shoes itself many times in the story Of Mice And Men for example when Lennie and George are camping outside, because they had not yet made it to the farm, and Lennie offers to leave George and go live in the mountains in a cave and never bother him again. George responds to him by saying “no-look! I was jus’ foolin’, Lennie.’cause i want you to stay with me.” This shows how George likes lennie’s company, and doesn't want him to leave because he's his friend, and he always wants to be by him.
He mentions many everyday examples that tie back to his main idea of decaying friendship. He states that there is no greater disappointment than to meet an old friend and discover how they have changed. He thoroughly explains how the overall renovation of friendship is basically hopeless, and how one should try to keep his friends close in order to remain joyful. Lastly, he reminds us of the greatest novelty in the world, the gift of friendship, and the lengths we need to achieve in order to keep it.
What kid hasn’t heard of Dr. Seuss? From “One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish” to “A person’s a person, no matter how small” to “From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere”, Dr. Seuss has filled the lives of children with whimsical stories and ideas. (8) Using casual dialect and everyday objects, he was able to spark the imagination of others. All the while, he instilled lessons into his writings. It is not a surprise that Dr. Seuss received an award for a “Lifetime of Contribution to Children’s Literature”. His work will be read and enjoyed for decades to come. All in all, no matter which Dr. Seuss story that the reader might select, his or her imagination will be sparked, and the reader will surely be entertained.
“It’s not enough to be friendly. You have to be a friend,” R.J.Palacio. Though Summer was the only one to really be a friend to August in the beginning, Jack was friendly and learned that just being friendly was not enough. He needed to be a friend. I started to think about how kids and I would realistically act around August, and I concluded that I would react much like Jack did.
Having looked at Pfister’s work, I have learned a lot as a writer. He has taught me that character choice is important to the overall message. Pfister has taught me that my choice in words needs to be precise in order to capture the perfect image and illustration for my audience. He gives a great example of selfishness by using a beautiful, yet exceptional blue fish, unlike any other fish in the sea. Rainbow Fish goes from being self-centered to becoming selfless. A valuable lesson is taught by the author for the sole purpose of educating our youth and making them understanding that egocentric behavior can lead to a lost in friendships and acquaintances. The moral of The Rainbow Fish has encouraged me to have purpose and meaning behind my writing.
Throughout this powerful novel, we observe the injustice in societal rejection and the pain caused by this. However, another extremely dominating theme involving the need for friendship surfaces again and again in all of the prominent characters. The Creature's isolation reveals the effects that loneliness can have when it is the strongest feeling in one's life. Taken as a whole, while the ability to care for oneself is important, people will always need someone to be there when the road gets rough.
Certain elements in children’s literature make me feel nostalgic for the past when I lived a more carefree and perhaps careless lifestyle with my eyes and ears wide open. Now, a college student and adult struggling to juggle school, work, and future career planning, I often forget the simple things that brought me pleasure when I was a child. The stresses I have encountered while growing older—taking on added responsibilities and accumulating prejudices—have clouded my childlike, innocent, and fun view of life. This childishness, which was reawakened by reading Charlotte’s Web,“Goblin Market,” and The Secret Garden ,is something I’d like to bring to life again. I miss it, and I’m tired of repressing it just so I can appear to be a mature adult. There are some characteristics in me that were rooted in childhood and still survive to express themselves today, like my love for animals. But these are few. The majority of things I learned, believed, and valued as a child have escaped me and perhaps lie dormant somewhere in my subconscious. My sense of beauty and healing power in nature has diminished since I moved away from my rural childhood home, as well as my relationships with my sisters, who were more easy to get along with when I was young. I regret losing these parts of me with age, and after reading these books I wish more than ever to bring them back, because they did form who I was as a child—and everything stems from childhood. This is when I was my real self, naive at heart and innocent at play.
Frogs are amphibians in the order Anura. The order Anura is broken down into 22 different families of frogs and toads. Although they belong to the same order, frogs and toads are different in a lot of ways. Some of the more distinct differences are their skin and where they live. Frogs usually have smooth moist skin and toads usually have dry watery looking skin. Frogs spend most of their lives in or near water and toads spend more time on land. Amphibian means "double life." Frogs and toads each have two parts to their lives: when they live on water and when they live land. A frog's life starts in the water when it is hatched from an egg as a tadpole. A tadpole looks very different from an adult frog. A tadpole has a tail, no limbs, and breathes through gills. After a while the tadpole goes through metamorphosis. During the change the frog grows limbs, the tail disappears, it uses lungs to breathe, and it doesn't have to live in water anymore. As a tadpole, the frog feeds mostly on vegetation. The tadpoles have a small rasping mouth suited especially for scraping algea from the bottom of ponds. Depending on the species, it can take a few weeks to a year or more for the tadpoles to become fully grown. Not all frogs hatch as tadpoles. Some species of frogs hatch as froglets. Froglets look just like adult frogs but are a lot smaller. Froglets don't go through a metamophosis. Most species that hatch as froglets are found in dry places. Frogs who live in dry places where rains are seasonal have to grow up quickly because a tadpole will die if their temporary pond dries up. Adult frogs can live in water or on land, but it always needs to be near water so its respiratory organs don't dry out.
Literature has been part of society since pen met paper. It has recorded history, retold fables, and entertained adults for centuries. Literature intended for children, however, is a recent development. Though children’s literature is young, the texts can be separated into two categories by age. The exact splitting point is debatable, but as technology revolutionized in the mid-twentieth century is the dividing point between classic and contemporary. Today’s children’s literature is extraordinarily different from the classics that it evolved from, but yet as classic was transformed into modern, the literature kept many common features.
We do not make friends because they are useful but the bond of friendship, once it grows stronger and stronger has a number of positive aspects. There are certain secrets that can only be shared with our friends only. When we are facing a difficult situation in our lives, only true friends come forward to help us overcome all the difficulties.