Book Review: The Frogs and Toads of North America

[SludgeMunkey]

The Frogs and Toads of North America: A comprehensive guide to their identification. behavior, and calls.
By Lang Elliot, Carl Gerhardt and Carlos Davidson
2009 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing
340 pages
about 20.00 USD retail 13.00 USD on Amazon

(Includes CD with recordings of calls)




Where to begin...

This book is a mind blower.

Every frog and toad enthusiast should have this book on their coffee table or next to the porcelin throne. ( I am a big advocate of the toilet library!) The forward is by Joesph Collins of Petersen Field Guides fame. This new book covers almost if not every species of frog and toad in the continental United States. Huge, glossy full color pictures abound through out. (Quite a few by Mr. Dick Bartlett!) Updated range maps are with every species. Throw in a CD of calls for almost every critter in the book, and you have a masterwork of amphibians!

I found it by accident while looking for another book and was instantly taken with both the low price and the wonderful pictures. (Why was a frog book hidden behind the William Gibson books in the Science Fiction section? I do not know, but I took that as a sign!) My daughter was so excited about it we listened to the CD in the car on the way home from the bookstore. As I am writing this, I am encoding the CD on my Field Herping MP3 player.

This is a field guide that is too big and beautiful to take into the field. My Petersen's will take the abuse, but this book has earned a place of honor on my critter room coffee table. I am especially fascinated with the picture of a pig frog hunting a calling barking tree frog on page 19.

I do have one small complaint about the book though. I wish it had pictures of tadpoles for each species. That is me being a needy frog novice, but It is about the only thing I can think of that could possibly make this book better. OK, that and a hardcover edition...

I kid you not, if you are a member of this site and reading this review, you need to get this book right now. I feel this book will be compared to the Petranka salamander book in the very near future.

You will thank me later.