Peggy Archer: Hi, this is Peggy Archer and I am the author of A Hippy Hoppy Toad. I'm going to tell you a bit about how I came to write this book, and then I'll share an excerpt with you.

My inspiration to write this story came from a walk in the park. It had rained earlier, and this teeny tiny toad was sitting right in the middle of a big wet spot, on the path where we were walking. My imagination quickly turned a wet spot into a puddle, but I didn't want the toad to drown, so I thought he could be sitting on a stone or on a tree branch or something.

Then as we walked, I started playing around with the words in my head, "In the middle of a puddle, a teeny tiny toad, a toad in the road, in the middle of the road." I worked on this story for a few days, trying to figure out how to get a toad, from a stick in the middle of a puddle, to somewhere else in the park.

I wasn't getting very far, so I finally put it aside and went back to working on something else. Before I knew it, a year had passed, it was springtime again. My husband and I were walking at the same park with our grandson. After multiple requests, we ventured on to a dirt path and suddenly, hundreds of tiny toads began hopping around. The words from the story I had begun the year before, started hopping around in my head, and I knew I had to finish it.

Later, I went back to the story and finally did that. Here's an excerpt from A Hippy Hoppy Toad.

In the middle of a puddle, in the middle of a road, on a teeter-totter twig sat a teeny-tiny toad. Snap, went the twig, up went the toad, and he landed on a tree by the side of the road.

On the raggy-shaggy tree, by the side of the road, on the rough, gruff bark sat the teeny-tiny toad. Peck went a bird, jump went the toad, and he tumbled to a flower in the park by the road.

On a fuzzy yellow flower in the hush- rush breeze, sat the teeny-tiny toad in the shadow of the trees. Buzz went a bee, hop went the toad, and he jumped to the grass at the side of the road.