Tyrone is a scientist who studies frogs. In this book, readers get to follow Tyrone and his students at UC Berkeley as they research whether or not a certain pesticide is harming frogs. Tyrone suspects that the pesticide is harming them because he's noticed when the pesticide is present in the water, the male frogs grow up and have eggs in their testes (a phenomenon called feminization). This could have long-range problems if the future frog generations cannot reproduce, so readers follow as Tyrone states his hypothesis and then sets up an experiment to test it.This is an excellent resource for science teachers covering the scientific process for experiments. The book explains the variables involved, the control, and the importance of doing the experiment a number of times. It gives a great real life application of steps and terms students have to learn for science class, hopefully helping them better understand the concepts and usefulness. There's also a nice step-by-step walk through of how microscope slides of specimen samples are made. One other thing I really liked in this book was the diversity of the scientists involved (including students studying to be scientists), they came from quite a variety of cultural backgrounds.Notes on content: No language issues. Due to the problems displayed by the frogs, testes and eggs are talked about quite a bit, but no other sexually-related content. Also due to the nature of the problems displayed, the frogs in the experiment have to be dissected to be inspected, so lots of frogs are killed for the greater froggy world's good. The Frog Scientistby Pamela S. Turner and Andy CominsStarting with the first “portrait” of a frog (smiling and looking adorable) on page 1 and ending on the last page, I couldn't set this book down. It tells the true story of a man named Tyrone, an everyday African-American kid who wanted to be a scientist. He's grown now, and takes his 8th grade son, Tyler, along with his “Frog Squad” from Berkeley University, to catch frogs and study them. The book is really amazing; it includes a complete experiment done by Tyrone that shows how pesticides used to keep bugs off of plants cause the frogs to mutate (think X-Men, but not in a cool way). I loved the abundance of color graphics, and I especially loved how it made me think. If such a tiny, tiny amount of pesticide in water can change a frog, what can it do to humans over time? Scary.
What do You think about The Frog Scientist (2009)?
Great for several different curriculum points. Beautiful photography.ALA ALSC Notable 2010
—thehungargames2323
Worth it just for the fantastic frog pictures, but also has interesting, you know, words.
—kkutt
A warning to every frog: Don't drink the water, or start shopping for skirts and heels.
—holly
