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I'm in Love with a Big Blue Frog
This is a unique offering of a book and CD recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary, based on the lively tune. Witty, wonderful, and slyly fun, the song "I’m in Love with a Big Blue Frog" was a huge hit for Peter, Paul and Mary in 1967, and has been a favorite in classrooms, camps, and at sing-alongs ever since. Not only do children delight in the playful tune, but adults also embrace its lyrics, which gently send a message of tolerance in the most light-hearted, humorous way.
- GenresChildrensPicture Books
28 pages, Hardcover
First published January 31, 2011
1 person is currently reading
21 people want to read
About the author
Leslie Braunstein
1 bookLeslie Braunstein was the original lead singer of Soft White Underbelly, the band that became Blue Öyster Cult. She wrote the song "I'm in Love with a Big Blue Frog", first recorded by folk trio Peter, Paul, and Mary.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 20, 2025
Though "I'm in Love with a Big Blue Frog" was written by singer Leslie Braunstein, the beloved folk trio Peter, Paul, and Mary were first to record it, on their seventh studio album. Released in 1967, Album 1700 had at least one bigger hit, but "I'm in Love with a Big Blue Frog" is an all-time favorite of mine. Said to be intended as a lampoon of the illegality of interracial marriage in the United States at the time, the song adapts well as a children's book because of its wacky imagery and evergreen message of acceptance.
How should you comport yourself if your love interest is a blue frog who dresses in human clothes and is six foot three inches tall? You're sure to draw funny looks when you're together, but there are advantages to loving a mutant amphibian. Your offspring might be attractive like a human but with a frog's swimming skills. If your blue frog is intelligent, charming, entertaining, and instructive, who wouldn't covet such a mate? The neighbors may regard you with a jaundiced eye and resent the life you build, but embrace the chaos and you'll do fine.
I love the blueprint in this book and song for dealing with bigotry. It's stressful when others look at you with disgust because you're different in some way that should be irrelevant. It’s easy to react with bitterness and anger, rendering your argument unattractive. Instead, this song counters irrational prejudice by amplifying its ridiculous claims, proudly wearing the label that was meant as pejorative. If there are positives to marrying a man-sized amphibian, how ludicrous is it for outsiders to get upset about a relationship with a human of different skin color, or who is outside the norm in some other superficial way? Being a happy warrior and wrong-footing your detractors with silly metaphor is the best way to make your case while staying above the fray.
This book includes a music disc of Peter, Paul, and Mary performing "I'm in Love with a Big Blue Frog", and it wouldn't be complete without that. I often hold this song close when I'm harassed for a being a little different, the boy with his head in the clouds, and I treasure its message. Joshua S. Brunet's illustrations are a delight, and I champion this book for music fans or literates of any age.
How should you comport yourself if your love interest is a blue frog who dresses in human clothes and is six foot three inches tall? You're sure to draw funny looks when you're together, but there are advantages to loving a mutant amphibian. Your offspring might be attractive like a human but with a frog's swimming skills. If your blue frog is intelligent, charming, entertaining, and instructive, who wouldn't covet such a mate? The neighbors may regard you with a jaundiced eye and resent the life you build, but embrace the chaos and you'll do fine.
I love the blueprint in this book and song for dealing with bigotry. It's stressful when others look at you with disgust because you're different in some way that should be irrelevant. It’s easy to react with bitterness and anger, rendering your argument unattractive. Instead, this song counters irrational prejudice by amplifying its ridiculous claims, proudly wearing the label that was meant as pejorative. If there are positives to marrying a man-sized amphibian, how ludicrous is it for outsiders to get upset about a relationship with a human of different skin color, or who is outside the norm in some other superficial way? Being a happy warrior and wrong-footing your detractors with silly metaphor is the best way to make your case while staying above the fray.
This book includes a music disc of Peter, Paul, and Mary performing "I'm in Love with a Big Blue Frog", and it wouldn't be complete without that. I often hold this song close when I'm harassed for a being a little different, the boy with his head in the clouds, and I treasure its message. Joshua S. Brunet's illustrations are a delight, and I champion this book for music fans or literates of any age.
February 15, 2018
I love this silly and fun intro to accepting those around us as they are.
January 16, 2013
Richie's Picks: I'M IN LOVE WITH A BIG BLUE FROG (book and CD), performed by Peter, Paul and Mary, words and music by Leslie Braunstein, Joshua S. Brunet, ill. Imagine/Charlesbridge, February 2013, 28p., ISBN: 978-0-936140-37-4
"Huntington -- A civil rights committee, which sent Negro and white members posing as prospective home buyers to real estate brokers in this township over the weekend, charged yesterday that 19 of the 20 brokers tested discriminated against Negroes. The group said it would send its findings to state officials to seek interdisciplinary action. The Huntington Township Committee on Human Relations said about 35 Negro and white members visited 21 Huntington brokers Saturday. Mrs. Joyce Insolia, co-chairman of the committee, said the prospective white buyers were shown numerous homes by brokers who had told Negro customers that they had no houses to show or had taken them on tours of homes in substantially Negro neighborhoods."
-- "LI Group Finds Realty Bias," NEWSDAY, January 21, 1963 (Exactly a year before my parents moved us to a new home in that same township)
"Yes, and, how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, and, how many times can a man turn his head
Pretending he just doesn't see"
-- Bob Dylan song performed by Peter, Paul and Mary, April 24, 1971 in Washington DC, for the half-million of us who traveled there to protest the Vietnam War
It is so weird how these things sometimes work. I was researching in the library over in Glen Rock yesterday for a few hours. I then walked a few miles back in the dark, with a few borrowed books in my backpack, which just happened to include a copy of THE PETER YARROW SONGBOOK: SONGS FOR LITTLE FOLKS, which is a wonderful combination picture book and CD containing a bunch of traditional kids songs that Peter – from Peter, Paul and Mary -- recorded with his daughter Bethany.
Walking into the lobby, just before the snow started, I found a newly-delivered box of books waiting for me. When I got upstairs and pried it open, I discovered a copy of a brand-new picture book/CD combination featuring an old Peter, Paul and Mary song (written by Les Braunstein). I didn't recall the song, but I loaded the CD into the laptop, opened the picture book, and as sure as heck understood what this on-the-surface goofy song was all about as soon as they got to the part that goes:
"The neighbors are against it and it's clear to me,
And it's prob'ly clear to you,
They think value on their property will go right down
If the family next door is blue."
Having been a Long Island kid who grew up reading NEWSDAY every day, and who saw a nearly-completed new house in our new neighborhood somehow burn to the ground (Guess who was moving into it.), I am so moved by this song -- which is a piece of our history -- and the treatment given it in this book.
Back in those days, you needed the imagination of John Lennon -- and then some -- to envision a day when the country would vote to have a black family live in the nation’s most famous house. No matter how much I talk about it, I don't think my kids could ever begin to imagine how exciting it is for me -- have lived through those days -- to see so many of our dreams coming to fruition.
Anyway, you should watch this great performance on YouTube of BIG BLUE FROG at Peter, Paul and Mary's twenty-fifth anniversary concert in 1986. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svoVxW....
And once you get a hold of this book, be sure to watch for details like the sheep with the new For Sale sign on their front lawn.
Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.com
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
Moderator http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_... http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/people/facult...
"Huntington -- A civil rights committee, which sent Negro and white members posing as prospective home buyers to real estate brokers in this township over the weekend, charged yesterday that 19 of the 20 brokers tested discriminated against Negroes. The group said it would send its findings to state officials to seek interdisciplinary action. The Huntington Township Committee on Human Relations said about 35 Negro and white members visited 21 Huntington brokers Saturday. Mrs. Joyce Insolia, co-chairman of the committee, said the prospective white buyers were shown numerous homes by brokers who had told Negro customers that they had no houses to show or had taken them on tours of homes in substantially Negro neighborhoods."
-- "LI Group Finds Realty Bias," NEWSDAY, January 21, 1963 (Exactly a year before my parents moved us to a new home in that same township)
"Yes, and, how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, and, how many times can a man turn his head
Pretending he just doesn't see"
-- Bob Dylan song performed by Peter, Paul and Mary, April 24, 1971 in Washington DC, for the half-million of us who traveled there to protest the Vietnam War
It is so weird how these things sometimes work. I was researching in the library over in Glen Rock yesterday for a few hours. I then walked a few miles back in the dark, with a few borrowed books in my backpack, which just happened to include a copy of THE PETER YARROW SONGBOOK: SONGS FOR LITTLE FOLKS, which is a wonderful combination picture book and CD containing a bunch of traditional kids songs that Peter – from Peter, Paul and Mary -- recorded with his daughter Bethany.
Walking into the lobby, just before the snow started, I found a newly-delivered box of books waiting for me. When I got upstairs and pried it open, I discovered a copy of a brand-new picture book/CD combination featuring an old Peter, Paul and Mary song (written by Les Braunstein). I didn't recall the song, but I loaded the CD into the laptop, opened the picture book, and as sure as heck understood what this on-the-surface goofy song was all about as soon as they got to the part that goes:
"The neighbors are against it and it's clear to me,
And it's prob'ly clear to you,
They think value on their property will go right down
If the family next door is blue."
Having been a Long Island kid who grew up reading NEWSDAY every day, and who saw a nearly-completed new house in our new neighborhood somehow burn to the ground (Guess who was moving into it.), I am so moved by this song -- which is a piece of our history -- and the treatment given it in this book.
Back in those days, you needed the imagination of John Lennon -- and then some -- to envision a day when the country would vote to have a black family live in the nation’s most famous house. No matter how much I talk about it, I don't think my kids could ever begin to imagine how exciting it is for me -- have lived through those days -- to see so many of our dreams coming to fruition.
Anyway, you should watch this great performance on YouTube of BIG BLUE FROG at Peter, Paul and Mary's twenty-fifth anniversary concert in 1986. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svoVxW....
And once you get a hold of this book, be sure to watch for details like the sheep with the new For Sale sign on their front lawn.
Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.com
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
Moderator http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_... http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/people/facult...
February 28, 2013
This civil rights-era song was obviously a reference to African Americans and the prejudice they faced, especially those in a biracial relationship. Today, the book and song can be taken as a reference to any relationship that looks a bit different to outsiders.
It bugged me a little that the song and book made reference to children being the inevitable outcome of every relationship.
It bugged me a little that the song and book made reference to children being the inevitable outcome of every relationship.
March 21, 2013
Great story about a bi-species couple. Would work well in a storytime about acceptance or love. Plus, there's a CD with the Peter, Paul, and Mary song that the book is based on!
Read
June 21, 2013Absolutely the cutest thing ive read!
April 17, 2019
The song and the art are so fun! My 5yo daughter sang this book as opposed to reading it!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews