The Illinois School Library Media Association Presents

If You Hopped Like A Frog

Read About the Book

Schwartz, David M. If You Hopped Like a Frog; illus. by James Warhola. New York: Scholastic Press, 1999.

Introduces the concept of ratio by comparing what humans would be able to do if they had bodies like different animals.

1 v. (unpaged): col. ill. ; 29 cm. ISBN: 0590098578; LCCN: 98-46546. Picture Book: Dewey: 513.2/4 / RL: 3.2 (Follett), 3.4 (AR).

Read Aloud, Read Along

For Teachers and Librarians

Mr. Warhola is Andy Warhol's nephew and has written a book about a childhood experience visiting his uncle. Other books that help young children learn about fine artists and their works are also listed.

Artists in Picture Books

Everett, Gwen. Li'l Sis and Uncle Willie. Hyperion Press. 1994. RL 4.5. Lil Sis learns about far away cities from Uncle Willie's vibrant paintings. William H. Johnson (Uncle Willie) is an African-American painter whose work from the National Museum of Art and Smithsonian Institution illustrates the book.

Hunter, Jonah. Frida. Arthur A. Levine, c2002. (746) RL 3.2. Illustrations and simple text help chronicle the life of artist Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo, discussing how she learned to paint, how painting saved her life, and why her paintings are so unique.

Mayhew, James. Katie and the Mona Lisa. Orchard, 1999. RL 4.4 At the art museum, while her grandmother dozes, Katie steps into the painting of the Mona Lisa and together they have adventures with the characters from four other well-known Renaissance paintings. Includes information about the artists.

Nikola-Lisa, W. The Year with Grandma Moses. Holt, 2000. RL 3.1 A collection of paintings and memoirs by the American folk artist describing the seasons and their related activities in rural upstate New York.

Nilsen, Anna. Art Fraud Detective. Kingfisher, 2000. RL 5.2 "An opening cartoon strip sets up the premise: thirty paintings at a museum have been stolen and replaced by forgeries. Using a magnifying strip that is included with the book and the "museum catalog," the reader must identify which pictures are genuine and which are fakes. Information about the paintings (by artists such as Van Gogh, Monet, and Rembrandt) is included in the busy pages, giving this spot-the-differences book an educational aspect." --Glos. Hornbook, Fall, 2001.

Ringgold, Faith. Tar Beach. Crown Publisher, 1991. RL 4.4. "A Harlem-born artist expands on one of her distinctive "quilt paintings" to create a marvelously evocative book that draws on her own imaginative life as a child. As explained in a concluding note, Ringgold's "Woman on a Bridge" series, including Tar Beach (reproduction included), is now in the Guggenheim." --Kirkus, 1990.

Warhola, James. Uncle Andy's. Putnam's, c2003. (700) RL 4.4 The author describes a trip to see his uncle, the soon-to-be-famous artist Andy Warhol, and the fun that he and his family had on the visit.

Read About the Author & Illustrator

Author: David M. Schwartz (Read a Biographical Sketch)

In His Own Words: David M. Schwartz

As a child, I was filled with a sense of awe as I contemplated the universe. The huge numbers of stars and their sizes and distances never failed to amaze me. With binoculars and magnifying glass, I also focused on closer subjects like birds, flowers, frogs and bugs.

But science and math weren't my only fascinations: I also loved bicycles, baseball, boats…and ice cream. Years later, on a clear spring night, I looked up at the sky and a shower of memories descended. I suddenly remembered my childhood awe at the wonders of space.

That night I was inspired to write my first book, How Much Is a Million? Now, almost 50 books later, I spend much of my time finding unusual, whimsical ways to make math and science come alive for kids and teachers, both through my writing, and through speaking at schools and conferences. I also write science articles for magazines, especially Smithsonian, and to do the research I've made exciting trips to some of the more remote corners of several continents. I've been to Africa to study hippos, to South America to visit an indigenous tribe living in the rain forest, and to far northern Scotland to track illegal egg collectors. But I still love the land outside my door in northern California, and the same distant stars that inspired me years ago. From: David M. Schwartz's Website

Illustrator: James Warhola - New York

James Warhola

Artist and illustrator James Warhola is the nephew of Andy Warhol, whom he remembers with admiration and affection, saying that "He was my childhood idol." He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in design from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1977. From 1977-80 he studied at the Art Students' League in New York with Jack Faragasso, then privately with Michael Aviano from 1980-84. Over the last decade, he has worked as a book illustrator for several major publishing houses, among them Warner and Prentice-Hall. He has designed over 300 science-fiction and fantasy covers for the works of such noted authors as Spider Robinson, Robert Heinlein, and W. Gibson. Since 1987, he has concentrated on illustrating children's books. These include The Pumpkinville Mystery, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Tinderbox, Well, I Never, The Brave Little Tailor, and Aunt Hilarity's Bustle. His latest releases are illustrated versions for children of two Rodgers and Hammerstein songs, The Surrey with the Fringe on Top and My Favorite Things. Warhola's highly creative imagination produces memorable images with a fantastic sense of humor, color, and detail in both oils and watercolors. He lives in upstate New York and serves as a consultant to the Museum of Modern Art (the Warhol Family Museum) in Medzilaborce, Ruthenia (ancestral home of the Warhola family). Source:

Read Alone

For Students: Math for Fun!

Mills, Claudia. 7 x 9 = Trouble! - Farrar Straus & Giroux, c2004. (-Fic-) RL 4.3 Third-grader Wilson is no math whiz and he, along with every other third grader, must learn his times tables. His family tries to help. Will he succeed? Funny and truthful.

Murphy, Frank, Ben Franklin and the Magic Squares. Random House, c2001. (-E-) RL 2.3 Shows how Benjamin Franklin, inventor, writer and scientist, created a puzzle called the magic square to keep from being bored while serving as clerk for the Pennsylvania Assembly.

Tang, Greg. The Grapes of Math: Mind Stretching Math Riddles. Scholastic Press, 2001. (-793.7-) RL 4.9 Illustrated riddles introduce strategies for solving a variety of math problems by using visual clues.

Yorke, Jane. My First Number Book. DK, 2003. (513.2) RL 3.9 Presents a visual introduction to the concepts of numbers and counting, with over one hundred puzzles and games