The Mystery of Darwin's Frog

A frog full of tadpoles? Impossible! Here, for the first time, is the strange but true story of Darwin's frog. After Charles Darwin discovered the frog in 1834, other researchers found that one of his specimens was packed full of tadpoles. Was the frog a cannibal, or perhaps a rare species that gave birth to live young instead of laying eggs? No. He was a male, holding the tadpoles safe in his vocal sac while they morphed into froglets. And the surprises didn't stop there. Author and frog scientist Marty Crump mines her firsthand experiences studying Darwin's frog to tell the fascinating story for young readers. Award-winning illustrators Steve Jenkins and Edel Rodriguez lend their art to a mix of beautiful photographs. Young readers will be enthralled by this story of real science, full of strange surprises.

Martha L. 'Marty' Crump, PhD, is a behavioral ecologist who has studied Darwin's frogs in their natural habitat in Chile. She has written six books, two of them for young readers. Her previous children's book for Boyds Mills Press, Mysteries of the Komodo Dragon, was named a Best Book of the Year by Bank Street College of Education. She lives in Logan, UT.

Steve Jenkins has received numerous awards and critical praise for his artwork and innovative book design. His titles include Billions of Years, Amazing Changes; Actual Size; Prehistoric Actual Size; What Do You Do with a Tail Like This?; Life on Earth: The Story of Evolution; Sisters & Brothers; Move!; Hottest Coldest Highest Deepest; and many others. His books have sold more than one million copies worldwide. He lives in Boulder, CO.

Edel Rodriquez was born in Havana, Cuba, and studied painting at Pratt Institute and Hunter College. His work has appeared in five picture books, on stamps for the US Postal Service, and on posters for films and Broadway shows. He is a regular contributor to the New Yorker magazine and was an art director at Time magazine for more than a decade.