Why nikolai popov

A frog sits peacefully in a meadow. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, he is attacked by an umbrella-wielding mouse in a confrontation that quickly turns into a full-scale war.

Get A Copy. Paperback , 48 pages. Published August 1st by NorthSouth first published More Details Original Title. Mice , frogs. Russian Federation. Other Editions Friend Reviews.

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Why? Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 4. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of Why? A frog and a mouse go to war over. Popov makes a fine commentary on the futility of war without ever uttering a word.

The Russian author, who survived Nazi bombardment of his little town as a child, recalls the incident, and how it influenced his later philosophy in a stirring author's note at the end of the book. May 28, Fiona Hill rated it it was amazing Shelves: picturebooks , ks1 , ks2. Great message showing children that war and violence is the not the answer. View all 4 comments.

Oct 25, Taija rated it it was amazing Shelves: books-i-want-to-own. This is amazing! My first experience with a wordless book. Nov 24, Graeme Crooke rated it really liked it Shelves: animals , picturebook , global-citizenship , social-commentary , war.

A violent war breaks out between frogs and mice over precious resources. Implied reader To gain the most from the text the read needs basic understanding and prior knowledge of warfare and how disagreements can begin and escalate quickly into some that was never intended.

Themes War, dispute, sharing, violence, footwear, reflections, learning from mistakes, citizenship, history, understanding, environment, socio-political issues, geography, art, RE, feeling, emotional well-being. What techniqu Why? What techniques? Use of colour to emphasise the mood and events in the story. No words, allows the read to make their own interpretation. The implied reader. Fame of the story e. Only one viewpoint. Double spread. End papers are both light green.

Perhaps at the end to suggest hope? Sep 14, Samantha rated it it was amazing. What did I understand from this book? This book really opened my eyes to the political messages and power that books can display to children. Another view brought forward the idea that Why? Something that is heavily politically and socially topical at the moment.

How might this be relevant to teaching and learning? This book provides easy stimulus for people to talk beyond. All pupils are aware of the happenings of the world and it made make them all feel more settles if they can share and talk about everything.

Pupils could reflect on their own conflicts in relationships and how these were resolved. Oct 05, Christian rated it it was amazing Shelves: politics , children-s. Warning: I'm about to take a picture book way too seriously. This is a picture book with no words that depicts the rising escalation of violence that can occur for seemingly no reason, and ultimately helps no one.

The book begins with a frog quietly and happily sniffing a flower. A mouse comes and beats up the frog and take the flower. The frog and mouse are sitting in a field with identical flowers. The frogs friends beat up the mouse and take his umbrella, filling it with flowers. So the mouse Warning: I'm about to take a picture book way too seriously. So the mouse arrives with a shoe tank and shoots them. This of course leads to all out wars with both sides setting traps and attacking one another with shoe tanks.

Eventually the war ends, and the frog and mouse sit in a field of mud with no flowers in sight. The illustrations are great, and illustrate the stark horror of war, even though it does it with mice and frogs driving shoes at one another. It shows that if we try to take all the flowers for ourselves and don't let others have them we may in the end have no flowers at all. The title is obviously the theme: Why? We use cookies to serve you certain types of ads, including ads relevant to your interests on Book Depository and to work with approved third parties in the process of delivering ad content, including ads relevant to your interests, to measure the effectiveness of their ads, and to perform services on behalf of Book Depository.

Cancel Save settings. Bestselling Series. Harry Potter. Books By Language. Books in Spanish. By author Nikolai Popov. Notify me. When a mouse sees him with it, his jealousy overcomes him, and he swipes it. Frog's friends come to his aid and chase the mouse away. But before the frogs can celebrate, Mouse's friends return for a counter-attack. Before long the conflict has devolved into a full-scale frog-mouse war. By the end of it, all either side can ask is: why? The trap involves the umbrella used as bait on the far side of a fragile looking bridge.

The trap is sprung and the armored car plummets into the river. Things go quickly out of control thereafter and a war soon begins. Things progress to the point that the once pristine landscape is a charred and barren wasteland, dotted with wreckage.

On the final panel, the same mouse and frog from the beginning of the story look back at one another - both appeared confused. The mouse holds a dead flower, the frog holds the ruined umbrella. As a clinician I use 'Why' as a language stimulation resource because it is a beautifully constructed story. As a story, it follows all the elements of story grammar, in that has a strong setting, interesting characters, identifiable problems and a strong resolution.

The book is also effective when teaching other elements of language including inference. For instance, on one double page spread there is a chilling scene of the mice in their jaunty jalopy driving over a rickety old bridge.

Do the same for the mouse. This is a good exercise to utilize small groups. Walk through the photos, asking students to describe what is happening and ask them what they think will happen next. Your email address will not be published.