Would You Rather Be a Pollywog?: All About Pond Life

The Cat in the Hat's Learning Library

by Bonnie Worth, Aristides Ruiz (Illustrator)

Accompanying the Cat in the Hat to the local pond, Sally and Dick discover how the pond is teeming with life from algae and fish to waterfowl and frogs at various stages of development.

Genres: Science, Animals, Nonfiction, Childrens, Picture Books, Birds

48 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

BONNIE WORTH is the author of countless books for young readers, among them the Cat in the Hat Learning Library books If I Ran the Rain Forest, HarK! A Shark!, Oh Say Can You Seed? (winner of the 2003 Ohio Farm Bureau Award), Wish for a Fish, Oh Say Can You Say Di-No-Saur?, Would You Rather Be a Pollywog?, Ice Is Nice!, and Safari, So Good!

Reviews

[Amy]

The rhymes are weak in some places, but the information is great. This book got us started talking about wild life, amphibians, and microbiology. Plus, the reading level was perfect for a reluctant reader who likes animals and nature.

[Tiffany]

A lot of information and fun to read. The rhyming was a little weak on occasion, but I love these Seuss Learning Library books!

[K Morlando]

An excellent resource for the unit we are studying, the children loved this book.

[Lauren]

We are loving these nonfiction Cat in the Hat books. It’s really a cute and fun way to learn. Classic Dr. Seuss illustrations. Overall, would recommend for ages 4 and up and rating 4/5 stars ⭐️

[Danette]

2/22/17 Read with Naomi & Julia.

2/24/17 Read with Julia.

[Jessie Bear]

The Cat in the Hat introduces children to all walks of pond life, ranging from the amoeba to fish to ducks. This book is formatted as an easy reader, with an appropriate sized font and space for a child’s finger between the lines, encouraging independent non-fiction reading for beginning readers. The text is clustered in stanzas in an organized manner, but there are a lot of words present for an early reader. With about forty pages of text, not including front and back matter, the lack of chapters or other natural resting spots may be a challenge for the book’s target audience. Each stanza has an ABCB rhyme scheme, helping add repetition and predictability to the text. The most difficult words have a pronunciation key within the story, as well as a glossary after the text. Also following the text are recommendations for further reading, and these suggested books appropriately fall under the same age range as this book’s intended audience. The presence of The Cat in the Hat, as well as Thing One and Thing Two, put a popular spin on this non-fiction text with franchised characters children will immediately recognize. As part of “The Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library” series, more than a dozen other non-fiction books are available to children who take exceptionally well to this format. This book would do well in a circulating non-fiction collection, and is recommended for children ages six to eight.

[Nielson]

Learn all about ponds in this quick rhyming story...it will tell you about pond life in all of its glory! These books are perfect for the young reader. It will introduce them not only to the different animals, fish, and insects they will see at the pond, but it is also a perfect introduction to what a non-fiction book is like. Included at the back is a glossary, an index, and a bibliography for further reading. The illustrations are bright and expressive and perfect to engage the eye while the text engages the mind!

[Nikki]

My mentor teacher gave this book to me. She used it as a read aloud in her 7th grade science class. The book is educational and talks all about pond life. I thought this book was great.

[Bethany]

Clever book to teach a child all about the habitat and community one might find in a pond. It also has great rhyming components.

Grades: 2-5
Topic: ponds, poetry, rhyming, habitats

[Megan Zimmerman]

2, Life Cycles
3 and 5- Habitats, Ecosystems

[Ambulur]

great way to teach kids about life cycles in the pond!

[Connor Robertson]

K-5
Ecosystems, Habitat

[Siomara]

I love dr. Seuss books because they rhyme in a silly way.

[Josh Bader]

I like this book because its a start to introduce the younger generation into the nature in which we live. It is an easy to read book for starters. Also a great collection of books is The Cat in the Hat.