Take Charlotte’s Web, Carl Hiassen’s Hoot, and toss in a dash of The Frog Prince, and what do you get? The charming middle grade novel The Hop (Disney Hyperion 2012) by Sharelle Byars Moranville. The story begins with young Tad the toad: The loamy tunnel had fallen around Tad during the long night of winter and padded him like a brown blanket. But now the earth was stirring. And even three feet down, the young hopper felt it. Maybe it was the footsteps of people in the garden, or the deep, seepy drip of warm rain. Maybe it was the chorus of spring peepers. But Tad’s winter slumber has been troubled by strange dreams, dreams that foretell the potential doom of his home, Toadville-by-Tumbledown. He learns he must kiss the Queen of the Hop in order to save his home and his people. But how can he find this Queen. Tad reminds me a bit of Frodo–humble, fearful of the big wide world, and destined to go on a perilous quest. Enter Taylor, a girl who’s life has been turned upside down by her grandma’s chemotherapy and by the sale of the pond and acreage next to her grandma’s house. Gone are her regular afternoons at grandma’s [...]
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By: Smoore,
on 3/30/2012
Blog: Great Books for Children (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Blog: Great Books for Children (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: fairy tale, Middle Grade fiction, Middle Grade, Nature, environment, Disney, mg, charlotte's web, hoot, Friendship Stories, moranville, Add a tag
3 Comments on Fun Middle Grade: The Hop by Sharelle Byars Moranville, last added: 3/30/2012
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Thanks for reading THE HOP and giving it such a nice review. It’s lovely to be mentioned in the same sentence as CHARLOTTE’S WEB.
Oh to be E.B. White with his amazing first sentence . . .
I love THE HOP because the story has so many layers beyond the fantasy. Your comparison between Tad and Frodo is on the mark.