Kirkus Reviews, Aug 1974: Here are these two toads, Warton and Morton. Even though
they're snowbound for the winter, Warton wants to take his Aunt Toolia a box of
Morton's special beetle brittle, so he builds a pair of skis and starts off. In
the middle of the wooded valley Warton is captured by an owl who plans to save
him for a special birthday dinner, but the innately civilized Warton
ingratiates himself with evening teas and much house tidying. And even when he
is rescued by a platoon of skiing mice, he stops to save George, the owl, from
a fox and learns that his captor had a change of heart and was out looking for
some nice juniper berry tea. Erickson approaches each new adventurous turn of events with open-eyed wonder ("Warton was speechless. Never
had he seen so many mice at one time, and all on skis!"), and Di
Fiori's careful, detailed drawings take the animals' unusual domestic
situations in stride. Warton's winning ways may play havoc with the food chain,
but this neat, humane toad, dressed in his rundown houseslippers and enjoying
Morton's tasty ant egg sandwiches, is thoroughly lovable -- and full of
surprises.

School Library Journal, starred review, Aug 1974: One winter day Warton, a toad, straps on his skis to visit
an aunt who lives on the other side of the woods. But a hungry owl interrupts
the tiny toad's journey and vows to eat Warton. Can Warton convince the owl to
change his mind? A small-scale Wind in the Willows.

The New York Times, September 29, 1974: One has grown so accustomed to grim children's books in this
grimmest of all possible worlds that a genuinely nice children's story comes as
a surprise. Gone, for a moment, are urban problems, divorce, sex, drugs, death,
the ghetto--and in their place pops up the story of a toad. Warton.

Warton lives deep in the ground with his brother Morton, who
loves to cook. One snowy day he sets out on a journey to take his aunt some
beetle brittle, and is pounced on by a misanthropic owl. The owl, George, drags
him home with the express purpose of eating him on Tuesday--because Tuesday is
his birthday and he wants a special treat. However, Warton's nature is so
essentially cheerful, optimistic and kind--that he cannot help but make
friends with George, and soon they are having tea and sharing a few confidences.

A hausfrau at heart, Warton begins to tidy up George's
tree‐home and it is not long before the two bachelors are living together in
the manner of "The Odd Couple." But gloomy George insists that he is going to
devour Warton, and so Warton plans an escape whose limited genius depends on
making a rope ladder out of his sweater. Unexpectedly, he is rescued by hundred
mice (on homemade skis), and in a most satisfying denouement, the villainous
owl is proved to be a softy.

There
is a buoyant quality to this little book--and its spirit is so basically loving
that it would take a sadistic reviewer to say anything unkind about it. One
could mention, I suppose, that the black and white illustrations are a bit
pedestrian and that the prose, at times, gets rather Wind‐in‐the‐Willowy. But
no matter. As a parable on friendship, "A Toad for Tuesday" will serve its
readers any day in the week.

Publisher: Apples & Honey Press

Pub date: 2024-04-09

Length: 80 pages