The Greatest Second-Chance Frog Queen by Rick Schmidt, author of several movie-making books from Viking Penguin, has lended its pages to the voice of a small, off-green frog queen, Gertrude, and her extensive wisdom. It can certainly be shared between an adult and child, or just enjoyed as wakeup-call literature.

Nevertheless, it uses simple-and-direct language to explain the differences between us and amphibians, and how we're blowing it. Frogs have existed for 20 million years of Earth's history, much longer than us human beings.

If only they could talk! Well, Queen Gertrude does. She explains her philosophy, about how we often miss the point.

"You see (she says), "if there isn't something great and grand to lose, then the human beings don't understand the difference between succeeding and failing. They keep track of success through something called money.

" She continues; "(Money) gives them the chance to play out all the damage that occurred to them during childhood. " Pretty smart frog! So please don't damage your human children, she would probably add here.

In any case, Queen G. delivers a To-Do list for us people who call ourselves "The most intelligent life" around.

It's not pretty, but maybe reading this Frog-Talk will help avert other wrong-headed things happening, like, for instance, nuclear war. It's an important read, especially 4 anyone who doesn't stroll along on toe-pads.

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