Rick's Notes on Bullfrog Pops!

Bullfrog has become a series. This is the second in the series, and we plan on doing another Bullfrog book every two or three years. Each book will present a different language arts concept, will star Bullfrog, and will have the page-turn surprises.

The key to the Bullfrog books is to find a language arts concept that can be used to set up surprises. Compound words worked easily and well in Once There Was a Bull...frog . For Bullfrog Pops! I chose transitive and intransitive verbs. Intransitive verbs are verbs that do not take a direct object. The verb itself completes the concept. Transitive verbs take a direct object. The concept is not complete until the direct object tells what the verb is acting upon. Many verbs can be used both as transitive and intransitive verbs. But in some cases, when the verbs are used as transitive verbs, their meaning is different from their intransitive use. This sets up an ideal situation for a surprise. The intransitive meaning of the verb sets up an expectation which, when the page is turned, is overthrown when the reader discovers that the verb is not intransitive, but transitive.

The change in meaning between the two uses of the verb also sets up an ideal situation for teaching the difference in usage, because when the meaning changes it's easy to see the difference.

Once the language arts concept is decided upon, the next step in writing all of my picture books based on language arts concepts is to develop a list of words or phrases that represent the concept. I and my wife spent many hours pouring through dictionaries and other reference books looking for common verbs that could be used both transitively and intransitively. (My wife helped a great deal with this manuscript. She even wrote a couple of the finished pages when I was at a point of saturation.)

We then went over that list and narrowed it, cutting verbs whose two uses were too similar, such as "I sing...a song." We also cut verbs that were too complex or abstract for a picture book, like "deflagrate", meaning "to burn."

Next we developed sample transitive and intransitive options for each verb.

I then went through this list and chose several verbs which I thought would offer the best plot and illustration options. As I developed each step in the plot, I looked at this list for ideas. If I couldn't find the idea I wanted in this list, I looked at the secondary list, the list of all the remaining verbs with their options. The two lists I worked with follow:

The Primary List

The Secondary List

Beginning the Story

When I have my lists of words, I begin brainstorming plot ideas. Here are some of the free associating notes I produced as I was brainstorming.

Bullfrog Sequel
Bullfrog returns...a book
I see, said Bullfrog. I see a bear!
Bullfrog grows very very large...pumpkins
Bullfrog pops! Very hungry, grows very large.
Starts a farm--eats all his food--can't stop eating, starts eating neighbors food.
BULLFROG POPS!
(I had already come up with the popping concept above, but this is the moment where I realized what the title of the book had to be.)
Once there was a bullfrog who hopped...a stagecoach and rode far away.
(I knew this would be the first line, no matter where the story would go.)
Bullfrog popped...
...a grape into his mouth.

Writing the Story

Once I have an idea for a plot I begin writing. Following is my first aborted attempt at the story.

Bullfrog Pops!
by Rick Walton

Once there was a bullfrog who hopped...

...a stagecoach and rode far away. After many miles he came to a town.

"This is it." He said. "A place where I will have room to grow...

...fruits and vegetables and other good things to eat. A farm of my own!" He jumped down from the stagecoach and hopped to the shade of an apple tree to plan his next step.

"Have an apple," said a voice behind Bullfrog, "on me. This is my tree you're sittin' under."

"I see," said Bullfrog, and he turned to look at the friendly tree owner. "I see...

...a snake!" It was the same snake who had tried to eat him in the last town he was in.

Bullfrog began to shake...

...the tree. Down fell dozens of apples, right on top of the snake.

"OOCH EECH OUCH!" shouted the snake. "Stop it! I'm not going to eat you!" Bullfrog stopped shaking the tree. "I have something else in mind." Snake took two steps back and put his tail on his holster. "Bullfrog, draw..."

...me a picture of this little farm you're planning. I've been wanting to get into farming myself and I'm looking for a partner.

Bullfrog popped...a grape into his mouth. And he was full. Starts a farm--eats all his food--can't stop eating, starts eating neighbors food.

It didn't seem to be going anywhere interesting, but it did get me headed in the right direction.

The Difficulty

Writing Bullfrog Pops! was more difficult than writing Once There Was a Bull...frog because of the nature of the language arts concepts. Because all of the compound words in the first book were nouns formed by combining two nouns, I was dealing with just one part of speech, and the most flexible part of speech. Nouns can go almost anywhere. They can be subjects, they can be direct objects, they can be indirect objects, or objects of prepositions. It was easy to set up places for the compound words to go in the first book.

In the second book, however, I was dealing with verbs. The verbs could only go in one place in the sentence--in the predicate. It took longer to set up each surprise, both in time and in text. The result was a longer, more complex story in Bullfrog Pops than in Once There Was a Bull...frog .

Classroom Use

I recognized early on that the transitive/intransitive verb component of this manuscript would not be as commonly used in elementary school as the compound word component. I still continued with the manuscript though, for several reasons:

1. The manuscript also introduces the concept of the direct object, which is a simpler term that is taught in elementary school.
2. More and more picture books are being used to introduce topics in middle and upper school, and even in college.
3. Even if kids don't know what transitive and intransitive verbs are, they still have fun with the story, and they still understand the surprises that are set up. So in the younger grades Bullfrog Pops will serve as a fun story, with perhaps some direct object teaching, while later on in the school career the book can be used to introduce in a simple and fun way a difficult grammar concept.

"Starvin' Marvin"

While doing school visits in South Carolina I was informed that there is a chain of gas stations/convenience stores named "Starvin' Marvins". We saw several of these stores throughout the south.

"I'm still hungry!"

When I read this story to kids, the kids take great delight in shouting out "I'm still hungry!" at the appropriate times. My own kids, when they are hungry, like to shout out the phrase just like Bull...frog.

"Ahhh, bread!"

This phrase, "Ahhh, bread!" is a subtle homage to Homer Simpson. Whenever I read this phrase I hear his voice.

The baker's slingshot

In the original, the baker was aiming a gun. We decided this was too much, though, in a world where gun violence is too common, so we changed it to slingshot.

Food

Writing this manuscript made me very hungry. Or maybe I wrote this manuscript because I was already very hungry. There is a lot of food in this story. Come to think of it, there is a lot of food in a lot of my stories. Perhaps I, like Weird Al Yankovich, am food obsessed.

The Sheriff's gun

In spite of giving the baker a slingshot, we did let the sheriff keep his gun. Law enforcers should have guns. And besides, without the gun, the "draw..." joke wouldn't have worked. Without the threat of the violence, the non-violent, friendly surprise of being told to pull up a chair wouldn't have been as funny.

 

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Picture Credits
Original bunny climbing rope picture by Paige Miglio (copyright 2000 ©) from One More Bunny authored by Rick Walton.
Original purple monster picture by Renee Williams-Andriani (copyright 1998 ©) from Really, Really Bad School Jokes authored by Rick Walton.
Original bullfrog seated picture by Chris McAllister (copyright 1999 ©) from Bullfrog Pops! authored by Rick Walton.
Electronic modifications by Ann Walton.