Toad Heaven

From School Library Journal
Grade 3-6 - In this sequel to Toad Rage (Random, 2004), a young Australian cane toad longs to find a place where his family can live safely from the humans who seem to delight in squashing them. After an encounter with a conservationist, Limpy mistakenly believes that he has been injected with a virus that will wipe out his species. Hearing stories of a fabled "national park" where living things are protected, he sets out, hoping to find this refuge for his family before he dies. This is not a philosophical animal quest in the mold of Richard Adams's Watership Down (Scribner, 1974), but a rather darkly comic fantasy. Limpy and his two traveling companions - his slow, pugnacious cousin and his timid little sister - are a scruffy but oddly endearing crew. He is the brains of the outfit - a somewhat reluctant leader who manages to guide the others through encounters with militant fire ants, crocodiles, and a boatload of tourists. The often-raucous dialogue includes lots of body humor and gross-out descriptions of toad diet and personal habits. Even death is a frequent source of amusement, from the toads' eerie use of a flattened relative as an insect trap to the companions' unsettling experiences among stuffed souvenir cane toads in a gift shop. Readers will appreciate the combination of rowdy humor and adventure as well as the emphasis on individual courage and achievement. - Elaine E. Knight, Lincoln Elementary Schools, IL Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From the Inside Flap
In the hysterically funny sequel to Toad Rage, Limpy is on a quest to find toad heaven. A place where cane toads won’t be blown up with bike pumps or bashed over the head with folding chairs. Limpy’s determined to find this place if it takes him the rest of his life, but his plans are waylaid when he’s kidnapped by some sinister-looking humans and tossed into a bucket. Will Limpy be able to save cane toads? Will he be able to find toad heaven? First he has to get out of the bucket. . . .

About the Author
Morris Gleitzman has been a frozen-chicken thawer, fashion-industry trainee, department-store Santa, and screenwriter, among other things. Now he’s one of Australia’s best-loved children’s book authors.


Buy from Amazon     Compare Prices

Gleitzman brings back the pustulant pipsqueak hero of Toad Rage (p. 329) for further ground-level riffs on man's inhumanity to animal-with an Aussie beat. Wrongly believing that he's been infected with a contagious disease as part of a cane-toad extermination program, gimpy Limpy reluctantly hops off alone in search of a fabled National Park where his surviving "rellies" might find refuge from all of the maniacal motorists intent on turning his kind into flattened roadkill. Meanwhile, buying the smooth promises of hunky grifter Malcolm, said relatives hie off in the opposite direction into what promises to become a death march. Many references to slugs, slime, bugs and poo later-along with narrow squeaks, plus trenchant encounters with slaughterhouse-bound sheep and lacquered-toad gift-shop novelties-Limpy returns to effect a rescue, and, with the help of loyal gourmand sidekick Goliath and doughty little sister Charm, leads his people back to their cozy swamp. Some of the humor may be lost on readers unfamiliar with the warty main cast, but the cliffhanger-laden plot and high "yuck!" factor will carry them through this sequel. (glossary of slang) (Fiction. 10-12)


Buy from Barnes & Noble     Compare Prices