Safe Crossing

by Kari Percival

How does an amphibian cross the road? With the help of the Amphibian Migration Team! Learn all about a citizen scientist who acts as a crossing guard for migrating amphibians and helps build them a tunnel to safety in this delightful nonfiction picture book!

From Kari Percival, Ezra Jack Keats Award-winning author of How to Say Hello to a Worm, comes an entertaining and informative children’s book perfect for curious, nature-loving young readers.

Every spring, frogs and salamanders must travel from wooded uplands where they were born to vernal pools where they will mate. Unfortunately, roads constructed through their habitats have made the journey dangerous for these slow-moving animals. Many never reach their destinations. But with the help of the Amphibian Migration Team, there is hope for a safe crossing!

Readers will learn so much about amphibians and their habitats and get a great introduction to civic participation, too. The citizen scientist at the heart of this story presents her proposal for a wildlife tunnel to her local City Council and coordinates with stakeholders in the process like a wildlife biologist, a herpetologist, a roadway engineer, a surveyor, the Conservation Commission, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Department of Transportation, contractors, and reporters. It’s a fascinating way to find out how local government works and how kids can actively create social change. 

Playful and educational, Safe Crossing offers an empowering example of how even the youngest citizens can raise awareness about a meaningful cause, drive change, and unite people locally and globally.

BECOME A CITIZEN Citizen scientists are rallying around the world. You, too, can train to be an amphibian crossing guard! Protecting amphibians as they migrate to and from laying eggs means protecting many endangered species.

CONNECTION AND Doing citizen science gives kids and caregivers a meaningful way to connect with neighbors, friends, and their local ecosystem. This book offers a powerful example of how children can make a difference by raising awareness and uniting a community around causes they care about.

FASCINATING  There’s so much to learn! Additional resources at the back of the book include information on amphibian life cycles, crossings, and safety, wildlife tunnels, road safety, becoming a community scientist, and a glossary. As an added bonus, the front and back endpapers feature scavenger hunts for spring peeper tadpoles, spotted salamander eggs, tiny fairy shrimp, and much more!

Perfect who love science, nature, and animalsTeachers, educators, and librarians seeking classroom books with STEM contentScout troop leaders and parents looking for engaging nature books for kidsEnvironmental activists and club leadersFans of Over and Under the Pond, We Are All Caring for Each Other & the Earth, and National Geographic Kids books

Genres: Picture Books, Animals, Nonfiction, Nature, Stem, Science, Childrens

48 pages, Hardcover

First published January 7, 2025

About the author

While studying at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago illustration class that met at the zoo, Kari Percival loved drawing seals and puffins from her native home of Maine, and at Antioch New England Graduate School where she studied environmental science and teaching, she loved her tree communities class that met on the side of a mountain. While teaching science in public school, she most loved bringing her students outdoors to study nature nearby.

In her books for young people, she seeks to share her love of learning outdoors and to inspire readers young and old to connect with the ecology where they live. Percival’s illustrations are inspired by the wood-cut relief printmaking she also loves to do.

Kari Percival's debut picture book on gardening for toddlers, HOW TO SAY HELLO TO A WORM, published by Rise x Penguin Workshop, won an Ezra Jack Keats Award for Writer, CLEL Bell award, ALA Notable, Blue Grass Award Nominee, and was selected for Dolly Parton Imagination Library. Her newest release, SAFE CROSSING, from Chronicle Kids, has been honored as a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly and BookPage. She lives outside Boston where she also loves to pick raspberries barefoot.

Reviews

[Milton Public Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

This inviting children's nonfiction picture book brings a sweet story of citizen science to life in a fun and engaging way! Help kids learn about animal crossings, how to make a difference in their community, and encourage civic engagement. The often overlooked amphibians are given their due in this stunningly illustrated book about caring for these, and all, creatures! A great read aloud for all ages!

Find it in our SHARE Catalog today!

Ashley C. / Milton Public Library #CheckOutMPL

[Linda J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Safe Crossing is a beautifully illustrated story of how children and adults came together to protect amphibians. From the very first page with its list of specific things for children to find while they read the book, this is a teaching book. Kari Percival teaches how we can help animals, how animals live through the winter, how even children can have a part in a community project to assist the amphibians in their migration.

[Therearenobadbooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great creative duo color (there are more colors but the graphic design is focused on night colors). Interactive with search the pages at the stary, bringing awastart to amphibians. We learned about amphibian migration things we didn't know.
With prose and dialogue, the text adds characters and information. Great design of the pages. Great end pages with extra information. We'll done book.

[Meghan Bohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this one on all counts! I love the pages that show all that goes into a large project like an animal crossing. Absolutely brought back memories of the time we got a call on a spring night in Massachussets to go help an organization we had signed up with earlier.

[Bec · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! Loved the colors/illustrations and information about citizen science projects!!

[Brandi Rae Fong]

An adult no non-fiction book I recently read had a section on helping amphibians cross the road during mating season. Not long after that, I heard a story on NPR about the same thing, and now there is this book! Amphibian citizen science is having a moment!

The simple text shows a diverse family and community all working together to help the mating amphibians while also organizing and taking action to create safer pathways across the road. I loved the extensive backmatter about the different amphibian species, life cycles, and ways to safely get involved in being a citizen scientist.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really cool to learn about groups that help amphibians cross roads! Great art.

[Angela De Groot · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this fascinating and engaging non-fiction picture book, a family calling themselves The Amphibian Migration Team set out on a wet spring evening to the crossing place. Frogs, salamanders and other amphibians cross the road during the spring equinox to get to vernal pools on the other side. Like me, the youngest of the crew, Tallulah, has many questions like: How do the frogs and salamanders know that tonight is the night? How do they know where to go? And why do they cross the street in this very spot? Even though the road is closed to all but local traffic, and even though the team helps some of the creatures to the other side, not all of the amphibians make it safely across. There has to be a safer way. Perhaps a safe crossing for amphibians like a bridge or tunnel. Soon it’s all hands on deck and brains whirring as the team figures out a safer crossing and how to go about making their idea into a plan and into a reality.
This is a wonderful, beautifully written and illustrated book showing how even the youngest of readers can contribute to a meaningful cause.

[Dylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like it but sometimes having the extra information makes it a little confusing to know which part to read when. This might make it a little tough for the intended age audience to get into it.

Still, gorgeous illustrations and a lovely story of a grassroots campaign making a real difference.

[Holly Wagner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is perfect for an elementary school library. It’s geared to older students. It would bea great way to get kids motivated to do a community service science project. It has all the steps one would take to help out a species in danger. I love how it all seems completely doable. Lots of helpful and fun facts at then end of the book are icing on the cake. Plus, what kid doesn’t love amphibians—spotted salamanders, Jefferson salamanders, spring peepers, wood frogs, gray tree frogs, and so much more. Loved every page. And the illustrations are fabulous!

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This will be a great addition to the books I share when we study animal crossings built across the world in our research unit.

[kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

NYPL Best Picture Book, 2025. Exquisite woodcut illustrations. Color palette was like a dark spring night; lots of dark blues and greens.

[Allison Haehnel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Safe Crossing shows the power of one voice and one action. We can all contribute in different ways to make safe spaces and safe crossings for wildlife.

[Heidi Burkhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent for classroom use. A great way to enhance an environmental unit. The fine study guide at the back of the book.

[Patricia Q · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting!

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good for all the little future activists

[Gretchen Feiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do not miss this exceptional and life-changing book, whether you're a librarian, parent, or educator.

Beautifully illustrated and fully engaging, Safe Crossing presents an empowering story of hope and change. Percival's illustrations invite readers into an obviously tight, loving family whose children are encouraged to think and ask questions, that lead to meaningful community action. Encouraging kids to believe in their capacity for helping their nonhuman friends, Percival's narrative is both compelling, and also extremely actionable, and she employs interactive elements for drawing readers in, literally from cover to cover.

As a middle school science teacher, students respond to both the visual and narrative elements, while the more concrete among them appreciate the richly presented factual information about vernal pools. Percival incorporates research-based science into her work, and presents a whole ecosystem largely ignored by most residents of northern states, apart from the annual chorus of peepers. Drawing students into the study of this fascinating detritus-based and ephemeral ecosystem puts a relevant and fascinating capstone on our studies of energy and matter flow in ecosystems. It perfectly aligns with the NGSS ecology standards, and makes for an amazing project-based learning opportunity usable both in the classroom and in a home schooling context. The roadmap Percival illustrates for how a small group of people could enact actionable local change makes for a powerful learning opportunity; experience and change-making are the most powerful pedagogies. Consider launching your next ecology unit with this memorable marriage of art and well-researched science.

[Stephanie Tournas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each early spring, the narrator and her family act as crossing guards for amphibians crossing the busy road. As she and her family pick up and transport salamanders, wood frogs, spring peepers and other amphibians (carefully, with moist hands), she narrates what she knows about how and why this happens. Readers find out about the yearly migration to vernal pools and deep woods each rainy spring and how vulnerable these small creatures are. As she worries about how to protect the animals, she hatches a plan to get her town to create a safe crossing for wildlife.

Gorgeous woodcut-like digital artwork perfectly sets the scene of a wet spring, with white streaks that look like etching lines as the ever-present rain. A limited palette of purple, yellow and brown is reminiscent of older classic picture book art. Kids will learn lots about the habitat and migration patterns of amphibians that quietly occurs each year. I loved that the biracial family takes the survival of these animals so seriously that they collect information and petition their town to build a tunnel for their migration. This is citizen science activism at its best, and it’s something kids can do.

Plenty of informational back matter enhances learning and on the endpapers there are lists of items to find in the text.

This beautiful book is a must-buy for all elementary school classrooms and libraries. And the author is from Massachusetts!

[Calista · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned so much from this story. The equinox will wake up amphibians and they will migrate to the ponds they were hatched in to spawn. It's a mass migration night on the first rain.

I have seen it as a child and didn't know what was happening. I was driving home from an uncle's house with my grandparents one night. It was running, just like in the tale. The lights were on and on the road were just thousands of frogs. Grandpa just kept going. I couldn't do anything. The traffic was light, but many frogs didn't make it that night. We were all shocked to see it.

So this is about a town who would slow traffic down on a certain road and they would move the salamanders and frogs to the other side in person in the rain. Wow. That's some dedication. IN the story, they build a series of nature tunnels for the frogs to cross safely in the future.

It's pretty cool. The saddest part is now our government is stripped of the power to help people do these types of projects.

The artwork is digital. It takes place at night, so it is very moody and you want these people in the rain to go get warm inside. People can be so amazing.

Kids who like animals will love this.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

You may have heard of wildlife crossings, but are you aware of amphibian crossings?
A sweet narrator shares the story about these amazing journeys in this charming and informative book. On a rainy spring night, the first night after the spring thaw, she and her family don their raincoats, retrieve their flashlights and go out to help the amphibians cross from their winter home to their spring homes in vernal ponds. The police help by closing the road, but some cars still pass by on the way to their homes. That is when the Amphibian Migration Teams step in to help. But they can’t help them all, so the team, led by the children, formulate a plan to build a tunnel for the amphibian crossing.

This entertaining and factual book is not only filled with details about the amphibian crossings, but also provides an example of how people of all ages can work together to formulate change. The back matter is full of facts about amphibians, wildlife crossings, a detailed glossary and information on how to be a community scientist.

Many thanks to Chronicle Kids Books for the review copy.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

On a wet night in spring, a biracial family becomes a crossing crew—safely ushering migrating amphibians across a road. Richly layered digital prints in purples and yellows capture the warm lighted home, the atmospheric woods, and the bright eyes and spotted skins of the frogs and salamanders. Questions are central, as the older girl wonders how the creatures know when to migrate and responds to her younger sister’s many questions of why and how. Repeated phrases and visual motifs tie the story together. The girls’ beaded hair and spotted clothing echo the amphibians’ markings and precious eggs. Rich back matter includes lifecycle information, fun facts, citizen scientist activities, a road safety and safe-handling primer, sources of additional information, a glossary, and a seek-and-find checklist on the endpapers. Diverse ethnicities are shown. The mother and children appear Black, the father white.

[Martha Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this! A terrific story of how kids can make a difference. The Amphibian Migration Team not only helps frogs cross roads to ephemeral ponds during the spring mating season, but one of them also dreams up a bigger and better solution to the problem. The WHOLE community then rallies around the idea and more frogs and salamanders now have a safer pathway to their ponds. The art is spectacular; so great at developing enthusiasm and joy.

You feel you are there in the rain and cool, helping frogs cross the road, marking when cars kill the frogs and salamanders despite the signs. You can feel the lead character's frustration and the gratitude you have to her dad, who listens and acts. A winner on so many levels.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting book about how amphibians in the woods need to migrate to another area in the early spring. To get where they need to go, they have to cross the road, which is dangerous. People help them cross, and a young girl decides she is going to help create a tunnel so they can cross more safely. The book cover what needs to happen to make the tunnel (both logistics with the city, budget and the actual construction). I thought it was really fascinating, and done with just the right amount of info and story. The images were also brilliant with purple and yellow and main colors. And a diverse group of people shown as characters. I think this is a great read aloud for a class learning about amphibians.

[TheRetiredSchoolLibrarian |Mrs. Ferraris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brief summary: This narrative nonfiction picture book is about when the spring comes thawing the ground. The amphibians need to cross a road to pools or to find a mate. The Amphibian Migration Team set up detours and help the creatures safely cross the road. Will they be able to raise enough money to put in tunnels under the road for the amphibians?

Comments: The illustrations were created digitally. The front and back end pages feature "Can You Find?" lists that encourage readers to closely examine the illustrations, while the back sections provide additional amphibian facts.

Rating: 4/5 📗📗📗📗

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a brilliant example of how fact and fiction can be seamlessly woven together to both inform and inspire. It tells the true story of a family that creates a safe crossing for amphibians that must navigate a busy road to reach their breeding grounds. Motivated by concern for local wildlife, the family devises a thoughtful solution and rallies their community to take action. The result is a powerful message: anyone—regardless of age or ability—can make a difference. I was especially impressed by the beautiful illustrations, the clear and engaging scientific content, and the uplifting portrayal of grassroots activism driven by determination and compassion.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A children's book featuring the migration of frogs and salamanders in spring from their wooded upland to the vernal pools for mating and the characters who wanted to make sure there was a safe crossing for them with the encroachment of humans.

The families and community gather together and work with scientists and engineers to make a design and then work to fundraise to pay for the safe crossing.

It's a story that features an environmental message and community togetherness with the yellows and purples of the illustrations to make a wonderfully celebratory children's book.

[Cara Byrne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every spring here in Cleveland, Ohio, my daughter knows to go to a specific spot in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park for a parade of peepers, toads, and (our favorites) salamanders. This march has become a beloved tradition and it has made my daughter an expert at finding these creatures all around. We loved this book - with a familiar story - and the explanation of how a community can come together to take action to protect wildlife (and how this is often something that takes a lot of time to accomplish).

[Marsha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book starts off as the detailing of an unusual nature project. I had no idea that there were people out there dedicated to helping frogs, salamanders, toads and other such creatures crossing the street during their annual migration! What a concept!

Then one girl decides that not enough is being done. Before you know it, a small spark of a plan turns into a grassroots project that profoundly changes the local neighborhood.

It’s inspiring reading and reminds you just how much can get done when somebody has an idea and others rally around it.

[Jessica Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Safe Crossing is an up-close look at the life cycle of amphibians, specifically their migration. Author/illustrator Kari Percival’s text is clear and informative. The story is a nighttime adventure that little ones will enjoy. Percival’s artwork is playful and full of movement. Her use of color highlights the action.

Backmatter includes further details on life cycles, fun species facts, wildlife crossings, road safety, amphibian safety, being a community scientist and a glossary.

[PumpkinParker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oooh I really like this book

I think it'd be great for kids just getting into the idea of wildlife conservation; it simplifies the topic without condescending to children's intelligence, it establishes through its main character that children have the power to make change, it showcases the importance of community, it has stylized, high contrast art that keeps your attention throughout the story, and it even ends with a glossary, tips on how to safely help amphibians, and a little I Spy game!