Jared's Book Reviews: "Hip-Pocket Papa" by Sandra Markle - Module 11 Informational Books

Genre: Hip-Pocket Papa (Markle, 2010) is an informational book about the life-cycle of Hip-Pocket Frogs, who life in the rainforests of Australia and have the interesting adaptation that the tadpoles are carried around by the father in the titular hip-pockets. As an informational book it presents information foremost, though the narrative is not that of a single real frog, but a compilation of normal and potential occurrences for an average member of the species.

Book Summary: Hip-Pocket Papa follows a single male frog from just after he has mated and the eggs are hidden beneath the leaves on the forest floor until the frog deposits the newly transformed froglets onto the damp banks of a stream where they can find prey. Encounters with predators are also included, and some issues with it being a particularly dry season.

Impressions: While I would have liked to have seen a bit more detail on how the hip-pockets actually work, the narrative is delightful and informative, with a look as a really unusual creature and how it raises offspring.

Professional Review: From Kirkus Reviews (2017)
Building on the appealing notion of nurturing fathers, Markle and Marks present this tiny Australian frog in the context of its natural environment. Both male and female hip-pocket frogs guard their developing eggs, but after they’ve hatched, the male keeps his tadpoles safe in hip pockets until they have used up their yolks and developed lungs. The poetic text follows one male journeying to a new and wetter home, describing the creatures he eats and those that want to eat him along the way. Without explicitly using the phrase, she even offers an example of the food chain: A quoll catches the dusky antechinus hunting the frog. These and other Australian animals from the story are further described in an animal glossary at the end. The detailed, realistic watercolor-and-pencil illustrations, mostly double-page spreads, provide a frog’s-eye view of the shadowy forest floor, pulling out to show predators overhead and, once, for a panorama of the temperate rainforest. This intriguing, informative introduction is a worthy successor to the team’s Finding Home (2008). (author’s note, facts, further sources) (Informational picture book. 5-8)

Library Uses: Any unit on frogs could benefit from this book, or a STEM program about unusual animals. (Or Australian animals, which has a lot of overlap) Spring programing could also be the setting for using this book, the circle of life/life-cycles, baby animals, etc.

Readalikes: For readers interested in informational books about animals, a good place to start is the Zoobooks magazines, while readers more after books about frogs – fictional or not – would appreciate the Frog and Toad series by Arnold Lobel, or even the Commander Toad series by Jane Yolen. Weird Frogs by Chris G. Early could also be a good pick, given that hip-pocket frogs are rather unusual, as frogs go.

References
Kirkus Reviews. (2017). Hip-Pocket Papa. [Review of the book Hip-Pocket Papa]. Kirkus Media, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/sandra-markle/hip-pocket-papa/
Markle, S. (2010). Hip-Pocket Papa. Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge Publishing.