Night of the Spadefoot Toads

The book, Night of the Spadefoot Toads by Bill Harley, is about a determined, animal loving boy named Ben Moroney. This friendship and determination driven work of realistic fiction shows how Ben is a persevering boy. He tries to succeed in his goals after he just moved from Tucson (his favorite place in the world) to Massachusetts (his least favorite place in the world). After her husband died, a nice old lady named Mrs. Gloria Tibbets loses a forest next to her house that has endangered creatures. But Ben, who cares about Mrs. Tibbets and her land, will do his best to save it. But will Ben Moroney’s best be enough?
I think that Night of the Spadefoot Toads by Bill Harley wasn’t amazing for me and I would definitely, in my opinion, choose a different book besides this one. The first reason I have this opinion is because the ending was too predictable for my liking. Books like these (light-hearted) always end where everybody is happy. Endings like that are too predictable.
Another reason for my opinion is that the author made the story too light-hearted for my liking. The author had a lot of opportunities to include some sort of incident or injury or worse in the book which I think I would have preferred to raise the drama and tension in the book.
My third and final reason is the author didn’t put enough internal conflict within the character (Ben). The author only made Ben go through guilt and that is it. It would’ve been nice to see him go through loss, misery, and sorrow. I think it would’ve made the story more realistic and other readers can connect more to the characters.
So really, this book is nowhere near my favorites list. It’s just not as dark of a book as I’m used to now. It’s just too light-hearted for my liking. But, if you’re a light-hearted person who likes light-hearted books, I would definitely recommend this book, because it’s kid-friendly (if you’re into that stuff!) - 5th Grader

The book, Night of the Spadefoot Toads by Bill Harley, is about a determined, animal loving boy named Ben Moroney. This friendship and determination driven work of realistic fiction shows how Ben is a persevering boy. He tries to succeed in his goals after he just moved from Tucson (his favorite place in the world) to Massachusetts (his least favorite place in the world). After her husband died, a nice old lady named Mrs. Gloria Tibbets loses a forest next to her house that has endangered creatures. But Ben, who cares about Mrs. Tibbets and her land, will do his best to save it. But will Ben Moroney’s best be enough?
I think that Night of the Spadefoot Toads by Bill Harley wasn’t amazing for me and I would definitely, in my opinion, choose a different book besides this one. The first reason I have this opinion is because the ending was too predictable for my liking. Books like these (light-hearted) always end where everybody is happy. Endings like that are too predictable.
Another reason for my opinion is that the author made the story too light-hearted for my liking. The author had a lot of opportunities to include some sort of incident or injury or worse in the book which I think I would have preferred to raise the drama and tension in the book.
My third and final reason is the author didn’t put enough internal conflict within the character (Ben). The author only made Ben go through guilt and that is it. It would’ve been nice to see him go through loss, misery, and sorrow. I think it would’ve made the story more realistic and other readers can connect more to the characters.
So really, this book is nowhere near my favorites list. It’s just not as dark of a book as I’m used to now. It’s just too light-hearted for my liking. But, if you’re a light-hearted person who likes light-hearted books, I would definitely recommend this book, because it’s kid-friendly (if you’re into that stuff!) - 5th Grader

My child was assigned to read this for school and I am sorry to say she finished it. They use every lifetime movie manipulation technique available to an author to ham fist their ideas toward a kid. Spoiler alert: recently widowed teacher about to give up because she is tired of fighting the system until she is encouraged by oft bullied student to save toads from the evil people like home builders and principals. Lots of kids calling each other stupid and idiot in the process and lessons include things like it's okay to break rules if it's for the environment. If the antagonist would have been name Vader & Voldemort Home Builders Inc it might have added some subtlety. If you agree with the premise of the book I'm sure you will like it, if you don't you will just feel it is appealing to base emotions and your kids are being manipulated. On a positive side it was very effective in showing my child what people will to stoop to in order to force an agenda.

As my teacher gave my class and I a book to read as a class, I thought it was a book filled with excitement, action, and full of adventures. Unfortunately the book that my teacher gave me was not about excitement, action, or filled with adventures as I hoped, but the book “Night of the Spadefoot Toads” was still an okay book by it’s standards. Times are hard for the main character, Ben Moroney when his family moves from Tucson, Arizona to what Ben calls “A rainforest ”, Edenboro, Massachusetts. Ben has developed many relationships including a strong one with his science teacher, Mrs.Tibbets. Ben has faced tough times that came out to be both good and bad thinking about his old home and his new home now. Ben has to wrestle with his own guilt, disappointment, and sadness in school and when Mrs.Tibbet’s sister-in-law wants to sell the land thats connected to Ben’s house and Mrs.Tibbet’s house. Ben wanted to save the land before all of the land will be gone, but all of that changed. If you want to buy this book, you can, but here are some things that the book lacked to make it a better book. To me the book lacked action and excitement but it meant something to me. It sent like a message in real life. The triumph of “Night of the Spadefoot Toads” is how it has perseverance, compassion, conservation, and courage all into one book. What I think could have made this book 5 stars is if it didn’t repeat the whole problem in the book about saving the land. It just kept repeating the same thing over and over again about Ben wanting to save the land. I know it’s the main problem in the story but I wished it didn’t do that. I think the author did an OKAY job writing this book. It had some rich vocabulary like “vigorous” and “instinctively” and not only that the character’s feelings in the book “hit” me to understanding how the characters feel. I felt the same feeling as the character. This was okay that the author put the rich vocabulary and character feelings that connects to the reader and makes the reader think. I wished the book had improvements but you can’t change the book how it is. For me, I highly suggest you to not buy this book. The book was just not amusing or interesting. It’s your decision whether not you’ll want to buy it or not buy the book. I hope this helps you to decide if you want to buy the book or not.

Very good book for young readers. I even bought a copy to donate to my public library. Good story and some important life lessons to be learned.

Bien

Something I liked about the book Night Of The Spadefoot Toads is that the author used very descriptive language that makes me understand the book better. My favorite character in the book, Night Of The Spadefoot Toads, is Ben Because he loves nature and he's a true friend to Ryan. Those are some reasons why I love this book. 😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃

This Book is great! Ben is an amazing character. The plot is amazing. Ben is a new student in a small town in Massachusetts. Ben develops a relationship with his teacher. The problem is that the teachers sister in law wants to sell the land! You have to read the book to find the ending! This is a great book!

I liked how the night of the spade foot toads had a message that you should never complain right away and to be patient. Something i did not like is that tabitha was so mean and did not care for the nature.

Story is ok. A lot of editing mistakes. Toby to Tony, Tompkins to Thompson—and others. The writing is basic.