I hereby christen a new genre: eco-fantasy. (Ummm, OK, so Google shows over 28 million hits for eco-fantasy. There’s nothing new under the sun.)

Anyway, The Hop is an eco-fantasy, complete with Big, Bad Developers, a nature-loving heroine, and talking toads. The toads including one named Tad, live in Toadville-by-Tumbledown. Their habitat is about to be destroyed by Central Iowa Realtors, a company looking build a new shopping center. Only if Tad can kiss a human girl will Toadville be saved.

Told alternately from the point of view of Tad the Toad and of a girl named Taylor, this story was cute and enjoyable, even if it was a bit predictable. Of course, Toadville will be saved. Of course, Tad will kiss the Queen of the Hop. Of course, all will be well, even if it takes a cross-country journey to Reno, Nevada, a bit of magic and a rich conservationist to pull it all off. For gardeners, herpetologists, fifties music fans, and eco-fantasy readers.

In the meantime, if you’re starved for herpetological information:
Toads Could Be Used to Predict Earthquakes.
Frogs and Toads Nature Study
Enchanted Learning: Toads
Frog and Toad page on Pinterest
For further reading: The Frog and Toad Collection by Arnold Lobel, The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, Commander Toad and the Space Pirates by Jane Yolen, The Toad Books by Morris Gleitzman, Toad by the Road by Joanne Ryder.