In spring, when frost thaws and rain arrives, amphibians such as spring peepers and salamanders begin their journey from woods to the vernal pools where they\u2019ll spawn. That perilous journey involves crossing roads as vehicles whoosh past. Enter the Amphibian Migration Team\u2014volunteers who stand at these crossings at night to monitor traffic and help \u201cour tiny friends\u201d to safely cross \u201ca wet road on a wet night in spring.\u201d As citizen scientists, the volunteers also count survivors and casualties. Percival chronicles this process in unadorned prose through the eyes of one multiracial family, who not only volunteer, but also advocate for the creation of a wildlife tunnel to allow the creatures safe passage beneath the road. The Black-presenting child who narrates emerges as a hero, asking questions packed with answers. \u201cDo they hear the other frogs singing and think, Tonight is the night! It\u2019s time to go down to the pool to lay our jelly eggs safely in the water!\u201d The explanatory part of the story\u2014the making of a toad tunnel, from design to budget to town council approval\u2014offers readers a road map. At times the narration slips into more telling than showing, but the illustrations, rendered digitally but in the style of woodcut prints, are spectacular. Spreads saturated with nighttime purples, browns, and yellows riven with beams from headlamps fill the page, while charming, illustrated bubbles pop up alongside the child\u2019s head.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In spring, when frost thaws and rain arrives, amphibians such as spring peepers and salamanders begin their journey from woods to the vernal pools where they\u2019ll spawn. That perilous journey involves crossing roads as vehicles whoosh past. Enter the Amphibian Migration Team\u2014volunteers who stand at these crossings at night to monitor traffic and help \u201cour […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1524"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}