“Nobody Likes Frogs” is a whimsical book of fun facts written by Barbara Davis-Pyles, featuring illustrations by Liz Wong.

This week, put some spring in your step with a book called “Nobody Likes Frogs.”

Picture book author Barbara Davis-Pyles, whose previous books include “Grizzly Boy” and “Cliff the Failed Troll,” writes from her home in the shadow of Washington’s North Cascades. For this book, she paired up with Edmonds, Washington, artist Liz Wong to sing the praises of the many different kinds of frogs that grace our planet.

Wong adeptly combines a couple of different illustration methods for this book project. Most of the frogs and the habitats they’re living in are depicted in a dreamy wash of watercolors. But a few of the frogs, a persnickety turtle, and ALL of the pesky flies that flit through these pages are rendered in a more cartoonish style. There’s even a bright red pen that appears to be photo-shopped into a few of the illustrations – this is the turtle’s tool for making a pithy editorial comment.

As it turns out, the turtle is the tour guide for this frog survey – and a cranky one, at that.

On the very first page, the turtle looks directly out at the reader and harrumphs, “Why would you pick up a book about frogs? Nobody likes them, you know.”

Perhaps the turtle should be a little more judicious — it’s surrounded on that page by an array of brilliantly-colored poison dart frogs. But page after page, the turtle continues to deliver insults. It talks about how rude frogs are, because they burp all the time.

(The book’s text calmly corrects this misconception, noting that different frog vocalizations can sound like croaks or peeps or whistles.)

Next, the turtle dons a tutu — yes, a tutu — and complains that frogs are bad at ballet, “an insult to the art form.” (The text points out that frogs aren’t trying to emulate ballerinas, but that leaping is every frog’s method of locomotion.)

“Unmoved” by that explanation, the turtle goes on to shudder over frog skin – disdainfully commenting on how slimy and warty it is. (Here illustrator Wong simply responds with pictures worth a thousand words, providing close-up samples of the amazingly beautiful patterns that can be found on frogs’ skin.)

And so it goes throughout the book: the turtle’s criticism on every page countered by interesting facts which underscore the good reasons that frogs have the attributes they do.

Author Davis-Pyles has a fascinating store of tidbits to share. For example, frogs don’t need to drink water, because they simply absorb it through their skin. And when they’re underwater, they’re able to breathe through their skin.

Frogs’ big, bulging eyes not only help them keep a watch out for both predators and prey, but when a frog swallows a tasty insect, its eyes even serve as part of the digestive mechanism!

And I won’t even tell you what Davis-Pyles says frogs do when they shed their skin – you’ll have to read the book to find out. “Nobody Likes Frogs” combines environmental awareness with frolicsome fun — so hop to it.

This week’s book

“Nobody Likes Frogs” by Barbara Davis-Pyles, illustrated by Liz Wong

Little Bigfoot — 36 pp — $17.95