Kulipari 1 – An Army of Frogs

Trevor Pryce and Joel Naftali's An Army of Frogs is an action-packed animal fantasy for 8 year olds about a little frog who wants to be a warrior more than anything.

What happens

Darel is a wood frog. Muddy green, mostly brown, and not poisonous at all. But his father was one of the Kulipari, the poison frog warriors whose skin glows when they fight and who move so fast they're just a blur. His dad died in the war that hid the frogs' homeland behind a magic Veil, and Darel wants to follow in his footsteps.

Everyone tells him it's hopeless. Wood frogs are for working, not fighting. And anyway, the Veil keeps the frogs' enemies from ever finding them. So why train at all?

Darel does it anyway. He spars every day with his best friend Gee (who'd much rather be eating honey snails). He takes on a gang of big tree frogs and accidentally flattens the marketplace. And he visits Old Jir, a worn-out old warrior, to hear the war stories one more time.

Meanwhile, out in the desert, the scorpion lord Marmoo is striking a deal with Jarrah, the spider queen. Her dark magic might be able to tear the Veil down. His army is running out of food and water, and it wants the frogs' land.

It's set in the Australian bush (billabongs, wattleflowers, wombats) and the frogs are brilliant fun. There's lots of teasing between friends, and Coorah, who's teaching herself battlefield healing from her gran's old books, is a great character.

The villain chapters are a different matter, and a sensitive reader should know about them. Early on, a scorpion commander stings one of his own soldiers dead for asking a question. The scorpion lord talks about slaughtering the frogs and remembers eating his own brothers and sisters. It isn't gory, but it is cold.

Darel's loss is sad too. He's secretly hoped his dad might still be alive, and an old friend has to tell him gently that he isn't.

For a reader who loves a battle and a big-hearted underdog, there's plenty of both. A child who finds cruelty upsetting might want to wait a while, or read it with you.

What to read next

If they love a small creature who refuses to be what everyone expects, try The Tale of Despereaux. Despereaux is a tiny mouse with enormous ears who just won't behave the way a mouse is supposed to.