Frog's waiting for a friend: 'But you'll do.' After that the duo plays together, and Frog teaches Dog about splashing and croaking. City Dog comes to the country, thrilled to run without a leash. The understated episodes acknowledge the transitory nature of the seasons and of life itself. Pink blossoms and red maple leaves allude to Japanese art Muth pictures Country Frog as a wise tutor who tosses a stick for his apprentice and, in a rain shower, protectively holds a leaf over the dog.

Willems's concise sentences, paired with joking illustrations in his other works, lose their hilarity-but gain significant emotional weight-when matched with Muth's watercolors. A closing chapter, 'spring again,' shows City Dog encountering another animal and repeating the same greeting Country Frog met him with the year before. In wintertime, City Dog trots through the snow to find Country Frog's favorite rock unoccupied. One spring day, redolent with fresh yellow-greens and pale blues, City Dog tastes life 'without a leash!' Exploring a reedy pond, he meets Country Frog, who teaches him 'jumping and splashing and croaking.' When summer arrives, City Dog demonstrates 'sniffing and fetching and barking.' Fall brings orange-gold foliage and a brown cast to Country Frog's emerald skin. Muth (Zen Shorts) sets a limpid rural scene for Willems's (Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed) two unlikely friends in this tranquil tale of change. He has illustrated many award-winning books, including another New York Times best-seller, A Family of Poems, by Caroline Kennedy He is also the writer and illustrator of The Three Questions, which the New York Times called 'quietly life changing.' Jon J Muth is the author and artist of the New York Times best-seller and Caldecott Honor book, Zen Shorts. This is the first book he has written and not illustrated. His most recent picture book is Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed, of which Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books wrote: 'Willems continues to be a master at conveying an amazing amount of emotion and humor using.

He has been awarded a Caldecott Honor on three occasions, and two of his Elephant and Piggie early readers have received a Theodor Seuss Geisel Medal.

Mo Willems (is New York Times best-selling author and illustrator of picture books and early readers that have changed the face of children's literature.

City dog and country frog