Commander Toad in Space
COMMANDER TOAD IN SPACE
Illustrated by Bruce Degan
Coward McCann 1980
ISBN# 0-698-30724-0 Coward hardcover
ISBN# 0-698-20522-7 Coward paperback
ISBN#0-698-11355-1 PaperStar paperback
I began the COMMANDER TOAD books because I saw an article in the local newspaper about a boy and his frog who had just won a jumping-frog contest. The frog’s name was “Star Warts.” I thought it would be funnier if the frog had been a toad, since the old superstition is that toads gives you warts. (It isn’t true, of course.) So I invented frog and toads in space on a ship called “Star Warts.” Every book is riddled with puns. (I love puns!) There are seven Commander Toad books altogether, though I have been thinking about possibly writing an eighth. A half-hour television show was made with puppets about Commander Toad but it wasn’t very successful. For some reason, several of the characters were changed–Jake into a human boy and Doc Pepper into a turtle–and the ship’s name was changed as well to “Stella.” Also all the puns were missing.
This book was a Garden State Children’s Book Award winner and a Junior Literary Guild Book. All the Commander Toad books were on Reading Rainbow. All six in the series won Golden Duck Awards, as best children’s SF Recommended Books.
Recording:
- There is an audio tape of COMMANDER TOAD IN SPACE from Listening Library.
What reviewers have said:
- “I love this book with all the love. It has a resourceful female engineer, a scientifically-minded captain, and sly commentary on the nature of courage. Also, Star Wars puns FTW!”—Locus Online