The Bog Baby.

Willis, Jeanne (author).

Two girls sneak out to the magic pond in Bluebell Wood and come home with a bog baby—a blue, toadlike blob in Millward’s delicately drawn illustrations, with stubby wings and an amiable smile. When, despite plenty of TLC, the girls’ small treasure eventually turns pale and ill, along comes Mom to remind them that bog babies are wild things that are not suited to eating cake crumbs or sleeping in a margarine tub. Time to set it free again. Imaginatively adding a touch of magic to an insight that all budding naturalists might take to heart, this attractive picture book closes with a years-later view of the pond teeming with the bog baby’s offspring, plus a form on which children can record their own bog baby observations.