Safe Crossing by Kari Percival (2025)

I first learned about amphibian migrations when I read Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass, which incidentally has a young reader version. Robin Wall Kimmerer shared how she and her daughters strapped on headlights and ventured out with fellow neighbors in the middle of a spring night to escort frogs and salamanders across a dark, wooded road. I was fascinated by this community science effort to protect amphibian wildlife from becoming roadkill. I wanted to share this fun conservation effort and story with my kids. But how? Enter Safe Crossing. This nonfiction narrative picture book is the perfect book to teach kids about citizen science, amphibian migration and the ways humans interact with (and protect!) their environment. 

Heart: Safe Crossing features regular people heading out on a cool spring night to help frogs and salamanders safely cross a road so they can get to a vernal pool to reproduce. Not only does this story highlight fascinating science, but it also reveals the many wonderful people in this world who make time for creatures, both big and small. 

Head: Read the back matter in this picture book! One key thing I learned is that frogs and salamanders prefer vernal ponds to lay their jelly eggs. Vernal ponds minimize the risk of predators, because they appear in spring and fall, but disappear in summer and winter. This makes the ponds an impossible habitat for fish. 

Want to bring this amphibian topic to middle schoolers? Check out my review of One Small Hop and The Sixth Extinction from last June. I think about both books often!