book cover

Toad Attack!

by Patrice Lawrence, illustrated by Becka Moor

Interest age: 6 to 11
Reading age: 6+

Published by Barrington Stoke, 2019

  • Chapter books
  • Funny
  • Deafness

About this book

Leo is astounded when he is hit on the head by a flying toad on his way to school. His best friend Rosa is excited because one of her two dads is a television presenter and plans to make a nature programme about the pale, yellow amphibians with bulging red eyes. However, the toads have an insatiable appetite and as the town of Upper Dab is besieged by these destructive creatures, some of the residents want to take drastic action to get rid of them.

This amusing tale positively portrays a range of ethnicities, family set-ups and disability (Rosa is deaf and uses a hearing aid, sign language and lip reading to communicate).

Books from the publisher Barrington Stoke are designed to be "super readable" and aim to break down barriers to reading for young people. Well-spaced text is clearly printed on thick, tinted pages to help reduce visual stress and jolly black-and-white illustrations are distributed throughout the short chapters. Special editing aids comprehension and the stories are aimed at the age of the child, rather than their reading age.

 

About the author

Patrice Lawrence was born in Brighton and brought up in an Italian and Trinidadian household. Her first book for young adults, Orangeboy, was shortlisted for the Costa Children’s Book Award and won the Bookseller YA Prize and Waterstone’s Prize for Older Children's Fiction. Indigo Donut, her second book for teenagers, won the Crimefest YA Prize. Both books have been nominated for the Carnegie Medal. Patrice worked for more than 20 years for charities supporting equality and social justice. These themes (along with a serious amount of music) inform her stories. Patrice still lives in Brighton.

She is our current Writer in Residence.

Watch our interview with Patrice Lawrence

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