Safe Crossing

November 1, 2024
Grades K-3 On a rainy night in spring, two girls and their parents are helping frogs, salamanders, and other amphibians cross a busy roadway near them. The animals leave the woods and walk to the vernal pools where they will mate and lay their eggs. What used to be a safe journey for animals has become perilous, for they are often struck by cars and trucks. The older girl proposes building them a bridge or a tunnel so that they can cross safely. The "Amphibian Migration Team" makes a plan, and securing permission from the city council for a small tunnel, they collect money through grants and fundraisers. The following spring, the family watches animals use the tunnel. The book's informative back matter offers facts about amphibians, their life cycles, and the concept of "citizen science projects." Illustrated with distinctive digital art, the book is unusual in that it shows several practical aspects of community-based nature projects, from working with government entities to fundraising. This picture book gently encourages kids to volunteer within their own communities.

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Starred review from November 15, 2024
A community helps amphibians cross nighttime roads. In spring, when frost thaws and rain arrives, amphibians such as spring peepers and salamanders begin their journey from woods to the vernal pools where they'll spawn. That perilous journey involves crossing roads as vehicles whoosh past. Enter the Amphibian Migration Team--volunteers who stand at these crossings at night to monitor traffic and help "our tiny friends" to safely cross "a wet road on a wet night in spring." As citizen scientists, the volunteers also count survivors and casualties. Percival chronicles this process in unadorned prose through the eyes of one multiracial family, who not only volunteer, but also advocate for the creation of a wildlife tunnel to allow the creatures safe passage beneath the road. The Black-presenting child who narrates emerges as a hero, asking questions packed with answers. "Do they hear the other frogs singing and think, Tonight is the night! It's time to go down to the pool to lay our jelly eggs safely in the water!" The explanatory part of the story--the making of a toad tunnel, from design to budget to town council approval--offers readers a road map. At times the narration slips into more telling than showing, but the illustrations, rendered digitally but in the style of woodcut prints, are spectacular. Spreads saturated with nighttime purples, browns, and yellows riven with beams from headlamps fill the page, while charming, illustrated bubbles pop up alongside the child's head. Informative and beautiful. (more information on amphibians and wildlife-crossing structures, safety guidelines, guidance on being a community scientist, glossary, "can you find" visual search game)(Informational picture book. 5-8)

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Starred review from October 7, 2024
Sumptuous in text and image, this story of environmental and civic engagement opens as an unnamed child narrator and family don headlamps, rain jackets, and reflector vests to join the local Amphibian Migration Team on “a wet road on a wet night in spring.” The amphibians are about to take their annual trip “down from the woods, out of the holes,” to lay their eggs in vernal pools across a busy road, and citizen scientists will work to help the critters cross safely. With wondering, reiterative language and luminous digital images inspired by woodcuts, Percival (How to Say Hello to a Worm) celebrates the wonder of biodiversity—every pictured creature is marquee-worthy—alongside the passion and hard work that animate conservation efforts. When the narrator has the idea of creating a permanent wildlife tunnel, the story shifts to one of youth-led activism as data is collected, money is raised, and construction begins. In the final pages,
the amphibians movingly make their first safe crossings via a new “wet road on a wet night in spring.” Characters are shown with various skin tones. Extensive back matter concludes. Ages 5–8. Agent: Teresa Kietlinski, Bookmark Literary.

January 1, 2025

Gr 1-3-Joining her family along a paved "wet road on a wet night in spring" to count and to help wood frogs, spring peepers, and salamanders avoid passing traffic as they migrate through woodlands down slope to lay their eggs in vernal springs, a young child wonders if there's a way to create a safer crossing for them. Indeed there is, as she discovers-though it involves consulting scientists and engineers, applying for grants and approval from town officials, and enlisting other children and adult volunteers in fundraising activities. As Percival lays out each step in this difficult process, younger readers will come to understand the admirable levels of concern and dedication required to bring such a project to fruition, as well as its rewards. Atmospheric illustrations depict not only amphibians of diverse species at home and on the move, but also workers arriving to construct an underpass. That, on another wet night in a later spring, allows many of the migrant creatures to make the crossing without fatalities as the child and a group of observers with flashlights look on solicitously. Along with a checklist of wild creatures visible in the pictures, the author closes with more information about handling amphibians properly, creating wildlife crossings, and doing good work as a "community scientist." VERDICT Young eco-activists looking for an ambitious but doable local project will find both useful informational guidelines and inspiration here, despite the fictional wrappings.-John Edward Peters

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March 1, 2025
Why do amphibians cross a dark, perilous road? To lay their eggs, of course. But sometimes they need help. In the middle of the night, a biracial family dons rain gear over PJs, gathers equipment, and joins the volunteer Amphibian Migration Team. Full-bleed digital art, "informed by woodcut printmaking techniques," immerses readers in detailed, layered scenes. On the title page, a clipboard holding a blank data collection form, a pencil with requisite frog eraser, and a flashlight introduce the mission. Percival's restrained color palette -- midnight blue, reflective yellow, touches of brown and black -- makes effective use of white, notably for casting light and for when the narrator's little sister asks narrative-driving questions: "But how do they know tonight is the night?...Do they taste the warm rain? Do they smell the skunk cabbage blooming?" Childlike line drawings inside thought bubbles share her musings and offer focal points for viewers. Sadly, some of the amphibians don't make it, prompting the narrator to seek a solution. The blue of the night sky becomes the inky blue of building plans and checklists as the girl and her community members lobby, plan, fundraise, and construct an amphibian tunnel. Two double-page spreads of back matter, seek-and-find endpapers, and scientific captioning throughout make this book as informative as it is beautifully illustrated and designed. Shelley Isaacson

(Copyright 2025 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)