Frog Freakout

by Ali Sparkes, Ross Collins (Illustrator)

Overview

Surprise! Mad scientist Petty Potts is the new counselor at Josh and Danny's summer camp. And she just happens to be hiding some bottles of her extraordinary serum inside her raincoat. Now she can turn the boys into amphibians!

Josh and Danny vow to stay away from Petty's S.W.I.T.C.H. formula, but when their new friend Charlie gets into trouble, they know there's only one option: find Petty and get hopping!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467740166
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/01/2014
Series:	S.W.I.T.C.H. , #7
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	88
Lexile:	740L (what's this?)
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	9 - 10 Years

About the Author

Before she became an author, Ali worked as a singer, journalist, magazine editor, assistant to a juggling unicyclist, and comedy columnist on BBC Radio. Ali describes herself as, at heart, an 11-year-old boy, and as a child spent a lot of time building forts, climbing trees, and digging up stuff. 

Editorial Reviews

"Midway through this 14-volume British series, mad scientist Petty Potts follows her favorite experimental subjects, twins Josh and Danny Phillips, to summer camp with a new body-transforming concoction.

At this point, the storyline is just treading water. Having contrived to lift her buddies' confiscated video games from the mean camp counsellor's lockbox, reckless Charlie inadvertently drops the box's key into a pond. Fortunately, Petty Potts has just arrived on the scene with a spray bottle of AMPHISWITCH, (the last syllable is an acronym for 'Serum Which Instigates Total Cellular Hijack'), and in no time, the three children have been changed into small frogs. To the twins, who have been repeatedly turned into bugs in previous episodes, it's all routine, but Charlie delightedly leaps into her new identity. Thanks to a hungry heron, she nearly croaks too, but following a narrow escape and froggy horseplay, the key is recovered and the games returned in the nick of time. Moreover, the physical effects turn out to be temporary—more or less. Collins supplies plenty of line drawings featuring wide-eyed children and amphibians. Sparkes tucks in a little natural history (as a frog, Danny discovers that insects '[taste] good! Like Cheetos') and closes with a reading list, along with a lead-in to future misadventures.

Not much of a leap, plotwise, but it should hop off shelves where the series has spawned fans." —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2014-01-22
Midway through this 14-volume British series, mad scientist Petty Potts follows her favorite experimental subjects, twins Josh and Danny Phillips, to summer camp with a new body-transforming concoction. At this point, the storyline is just treading water. Having contrived to lift her buddies' confiscated video games from the mean camp counsellor's lockbox, reckless Charlie inadvertently drops the box's key into a pond. Fortunately, Petty Potts has just arrived on the scene with a spray bottle of AMPHISWITCH, (the last syllable is an acronym for "Serum Which Instigates Total Cellular Hijack"), and in no time, the three children have been changed into small frogs. To the twins, who have been repeatedly turned into bugs in previous episodes, it's all routine, but Charlie delightedly leaps into her new identity. Thanks to a hungry heron, she nearly croaks too, but following a narrow escape and froggy horseplay, the key is recovered and the games returned in the nick of time. Moreover, the physical effects turn out to be temporary—more or less. Collins supplies plenty of line drawings featuring wide-eyed children and amphibians. Sparkes tucks in a little natural history (as a frog, Danny discovers that insects "[taste] good! Like Cheetos") and closes with a reading list, along with a lead-in to future misadventures. Not much of a leap, plotwise, but it should hop off shelves where the series has spawned fans. (Fantasy. 7-9)

Kirkus Reviews