Secrets of The Toad - Book Review

In Secrets of the Toad. Play Ball, Book 2 by Trisha Page, young readers are taken on a captivating journey filled with fantasy and adventure that provide insight into growing up in life and developing resilience and strength in facing its challenges! 

Jake and his best friends, Ryan and Pete, are enthusiastic baseball players. They approach the new ball season with keen passion, determined to be the best players possible. Jake has experience as a pitcher and is confident that their new coach will assign him the position of lead pitcher. However, the new coach has a son who is also a pitcher.

Jake was about to give up on his dreams of being chosen as the pitcher until his sister, Emma intervened. She urged him to find Tobias, her confidant, and advisor - a talking toad she believed could help spark Jake's confidence in himself. Though skeptical at first, spurred by desperation he decided one last effort couldn't hurt and went for an afternoon stroll with his pup looking for this mysterious amphibian... Jake remained skeptical- until he finally stumbled upon Tobias and found himself face-to-face with the wise creature who had already helped Emma overcome her shyness.

A talking toad? Perhaps he's an alien.  Jake hopes that running into a talking toad won't be as bad as cleaning out the garage with his dad or catching poison ivy. His dejected mood changes as he enters the solitude of the woods. Emma's discovery of Tobias's strange and mysterious powers had been shared with Jake. Meeting the toad, he feels dizzy and scurries away.

Jake doesn’t have an opportunity to share his Tobias encounter with Emma. Tobias instructs Jake to take a bird's eye view of the ball game. How high is a bird's eye view?  Winning the game allows the team to compete in the playoffs., Jake and the others learn valuable lessons.

Jake realizes that Tobias is like his shadow, always with him but often invisible. Older readers may recall a literary character called Jimminy Cricket, who is likened to a conscious. At Tobias and Jake's last meeting, Tobias scatters jewel-like objects into the river. A word is inscribed on each of the jewels: "Perseverance, Reliability, Self-discipline, Respect, Flexibility, Optimism, Good Sportsmanship, and Determination."  
            Tobias leads him to see scenes from the game. In the dirt, he writes a haiku.  
                        In the game of life,  
                  There are both good days and bad,  
                        vital for the win.
Through this journey of self-discovery and growth, Jake is left with a sense of optimism as he finds solace in Tobias’s help. By discovering the power to make changes within himself, this remarkable story encourages middle schoolers everywhere that they, too, possess the ability to transform their world. In the end, readers will ponder - was Tobias real or an illusion brought forth by Jake's imagination and his sister's suggestions?