A Toad for Tuesday by Russell E. Erickson

I don’t remember how I came to own A Toad for Tuesday by Russell E. Erickson, but I must have been six or seven years old when I first read it. It was my first novel. At 64 pages long, I remember it seeming like a gargantuan undertaking, but the novel opened up for me an entirely new experience. For the first time, I found myself immersed for hours, if not days, in a fully-realized world populated by wonderful, lively, mutable characters. We have our hero Warton the toad on his tiny homemade skis, setting off in the dead of winter for his Aunt Toolia’s on a Thursday. He is captured by George the owl, who plans to eat Warton on Tuesday. In the meantime, Warton is a prisoner in George’s nest, but over the course of the five days, his kindness and friendship transforms George. Set in the frozen snows of winter, deep in the forest away from our human lives, oh what a rich world this was! All packed into a sliver of a book.

Years later, when I was working at The Linden Tree children’s bookstore, I came across A Toad for Tuesday in receiving. I couldn’t believe it was still in print. I had long since lost track of my original copy, so I immediately bought this one. It was not loved and worn like my first, but the cover art was still the same (it is no longer) and, of course, all my friends were still inside. It felt like coming home.

A Toad for Tuesday by Russell E. Erickson

tags: children's books book reviews animal stories Russell Erickson