Les Braunstein

Leslie Braunstein writes about the romantic love between a young woman and a blue frog, in Im in Love with a Big Blue Frog. While the picture book may not contain many words, it certainly says a lot. The human and frog couple is chastised for their choice in a partner on each page of the story. The young woman justifies her choice in loving the big blue frog by mentioning his physical and mental attributes, as on lookers in the pages of the story give the couple dirty looks. The main character goes on to share that she’s not worried about their possible future children together; they will “neat” as they will have characteristics from both her and the big blue frog. Though the hate from onlookers’ continues through the story, the young woman’s mantra is repeated several times, “I’m in love with a Big Blue Frog, A big blue frog loves me.” In today’s world there are many children who come from, or who will come across an interracial couple. While the idea of a girl dating a big blue frog is silly, it is a great, lighthearted way to expose children to the type of ignorance they may see others display toward such a couple. The lesson here is equality, hate is unacceptable and racism should never be tolerated. This underlying message could be a bit clearer with perhaps an emphasis on equality at the end, rather than the story focusing so much on the hate people are showing.… (mehr)