Frog Face and the Three Boys

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Charlie has a mouth problem: he just can’t seem to keep it shut and
whenever he opens it he seems to get in trouble. Jeffrey has the
opposite problem: whenever a teacher asks him a question, shyness makes
him tongue-tied. Pint-sized Sidney lets his hands do the
talking—usually in the form of fists lashing out at anyone he thinks
is making fun of him. What these three Grade 7 students have in common
is Mr. Duncan, their principal.

Mr. Duncan, also known as “Frog Face,” has grown tired of having
Charlie, Jeffrey, and Sidney warming the bench outside his office. He
suspects that detentions and extra homework will not help these boys,
and decides on a completely new idea: he enrols the boys in a 10–week
karate program run by his son, Willie, who was also once a problem
student like them.

This book, by award-winning author Don Trembath, is the first in the
new Black BeltSeries. Although all the main characters in this book are
white belts, Trembath should have a black belt in humor. His prose jabs
at the reader with every paragraph and one quick joke is usually a setup
for a combination punchline somewhere down the page. The author does a
first-rate job of capturing not only middle-school angst but also the
nuances of life in a small town, where even the school principal has to
face down his own childhood humiliations. Highly recommended.