City Dog, Country Frog
Alethea Allarey
Written by Mo Willems
Illustrated by Jon J. Muth
Published by Hyperion Books for Children, 2011
2014-2015 Nominee - Primary
Synopsis
Through the seasons, whenever City Dog visits the country he runs straight for Country Frog's rock to play games with him, but during the winter things change for them both.
City Dog can’t find Country Frog, but spring comes again and so does a new friend for Country Dog.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mo Willems was born February 11, 1968 in Chicago to Dutch immigrant parents and grew up in New Orleans. Willems first became interested in cartoon art when he was just a child; at age three or four he started to draw and create his own characters. Willems enjoyed writing stories about his characters to share with others. He spent some summers in Holland and developed his sense of humor through his Dutch ancestry and a stint doing stand-up in England.
Willems graduated from New York University Tisch School of Arts, with honors and started his career by traveling around the world for a year, drawing a cartoon every day which were later published in the book You Can Never Find a Rickshaw When it Monsoons.
He is an author and illustrator and also an animator, having made more than 70 short films. He won six Emmy awards as a writer on Sesame Street. He has won two Theodor Seuss Geisel Medals and three Geisel Honors for his “Elephant and Piggie” books. His books have been translated into several languages.
Willems lives with his wife, Cheryl Camp, and daughter, Trixie, in Northampton, Massachusetts. When not writing, he enjoys hanging out with his family and friends and having a little pasta with a glass of wine.
Learn more about the author at http://www.mowillems.com.
Sources
"Mo Willems." Authors and Artists for Young Adults. Vol. 71. Detroit: Gale, 2006. Biography in Context. Web. 14 May 2014.
http://artery.wbur.org/2013/06/25/interview-mo-willems Web. 23 May 2014.
ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR
Jon J. Muth was born July 28, 1960 and grew up in suburban Cincinnati, Ohio to teacher parents. His mother was an art teacher and she took him to museums all over the US. He had his first one-man exhibit of paintings and drawings at the invitation of Wilmington College when he was eighteen.
Muth studied stone sculpture in Japan, painting, print-making and drawing in Austria, Germany, and England but most of his artistic education came from informal apprenticeships with painters Ballory Barack and Jeffrey Jones. His comic books have been published by DC/Vertigo, Eclipse Books, NBM, Donald M. Grant Publishers, Inc. and in Japan, Kodansha. He has won the Eisner Award for excellence in painting in comics. “I’m very interested in what words and pictures can do together that they can't do separately. There is a third thing which occurs. I'm drawn to what is suggested by both the images and the text but remains un-mentioned by either. It can be intellectual, or a logical story point, or emotional. This space seems to be as flexible as either words or pictures. It's a dance between the two. Exploring that element is why I started in comics.”
Muth worked in comics for 20 years before he started writing children's books; he was first inspired to start writing for a young audience after the birth of his son. “My work in children's books really grew out of a desire to explore what I was feeling as a new father," says Muth. "I was working in comics and that is a natural forum for expressions of angst and questioning one's place in the universe. When the children came it became important to say other things about the world… and that was where my work began to express the very real delight I find in being a parent."
All of Muth's work has received awards and critical acclaim. Zen Shorts was named a Caldecott Honor Book and spent 41 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. The art for his first children's book, Come On, Rain! written by Karen Hesse, won the Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators in 1999. Gershon's Monster by Eric Kimmel, was an ALA Notable Children's book, winner of the Sydney Taylor Award, a National Parenting Book Award, and was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. Stone Soup also won a National Parenting Book Award. The Three Questions was a Book Sense book of the Year finalist and a NCSS/CBC Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People. Muth also did the illustrations for Old Turtle and the Broken Truth, written by Douglas Wood, and I Will Hold You 'Til You Sleep, by Linda Zuckerman. Jon J Muth’s highly acclaimed picture books are beloved around the world and have been translated into more than ten languages.
Muth lives in upstate New York with his wife and four children, where he spends time "chasing the clouds from his brushes."
Sources
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130412091
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/contributor/jon-j-muth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_J_Muth
http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/muth/transcript
https://web.archive.org/web/20121025002203/
http://www.indiebound.org/author-interviews/muthjonj
HOOKS
- Would a dog be a friend with a frog?
- What are the differences in the life of a dog that lives in the city and one who lives in the county?
- Do you have a favorite season? What make makes it your favorite?
- Have you ever seen a dog smile?
- Have you ever had to say goodbye to a friend?
CONNECTIONS
Other titles by Mo Willems
The Pigeon Needs a Bath (2014) (Pigeon series)
I’m a Frog (2013) Elephant and Piggie series
That is not a Good Idea (2013)
Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs (2012)
Leonardo, the Terrible Monster (2005)
Knuffle Bunny: a Cautionary Tale (2004)
Saying Goodbye
Forever Friends by Carin Berger (2010)
The Lion and the Bird by Marianne Dubuc (2014)
The Sea Serpent and Me by Dashka Slater (2008)
Always and Forever by Alan Durant
Farfallina & Marcel by Holly Keller (2002)
Making a Friend by Alison McGhee (2011)
Bob and Otto by Robert O. Bruel (2007)
A Friend for Dragon by Dav Pilkey (1991)
A Little Bit of Winter by Paul Stewart (1998)
Bluebird by Bob Staake (2013)
Bear and Bird by James Skofield (2014)
Unusual Friendships
Owen & Mzee by Isabella Hatkoff (2007)
Little Pink Pup by Johanna Kerbey (2010)
Friends: True Stories of Extraordinary Animal Friendships by Catherine Thimmesh (2010)
Non-Fiction
Red-eyed Tree Frog by Joy Cowley (1999)
Frog Song by Brenda Guiberson (2013)
Dogs Rule! by Daniel Kirk (2003)
The Frogs and Toads All Sang by Arnold Lobel (2009)
Stay: The True Story of Ten Dogs by Michaela Muntean (2010)
Dog-Gone School by Amy Schmidt (2013)
Song of the Water Boatman: & Other Pond Poems by Joyce Sidman (2005)
Frogs by Alyse Sweeney (2010)
Seasons
Old Bear by Kevin Henkes (2008)
Listen, Listen by Alison Jay (2008)
Snow Rabbit, Spring Rabbit by Il Sung Na (2011)
Hi, Koo!: a Year of Seasons by Jon J. Muth (2014)
Red Sings from Treetops: a Year in Colors by Joyce Sidman (2009)
Leaves by David Ezra Stein (2007)
For more information, please check the 2014-2015 Resource Guide - Primary.