Frog City and the Racing Frogs

Infobox Book
name = Frog City and the Racing Frogs
author = Julian Patrick
publisher = Wacky Web Fun
release_date = 2004
language = English
followed_by = Frog Trainer's Handbook

"Frog City and the Racing Frogs" is a novel written by Julian Patrick. The book was released to provide Racing Frogs trainers with unlimited access to the Frog Trainer's VIP zone. A second book, the "Frog Trainer's Handbook", also serves this purpose.

Plot introduction

Frog City and the Racing Frogs centres on Todd Tinpot, a frog who needs to win Superfrog in order to avoid being evicted from his home. However he has never trained or raced before. He gets some help from Boris at the gym but can never seem to do well in races. Sly's henchmen almost kill him in one of the races and, as this resulted in Todd missing three races, Todd got a free entry into Superfrog. Todd knew it would be hard to win so, together with Gecko, he times each route to find out which is best. Todd and Gecko are right and, on the day of the race, Todd takes the route they planned, wins the race and stays in his home

Plot summary

Todd Tinpot starts the book on a day out to see The Fat Toad, a famous storyteller who tells the story of the Frogjuice Factory to the citizens of Frog Pond. After the outing, Todd applies to be a Pond Racer as he will be evicted soon if he can't get the money to pay council bills by winning Superfrog. Unfortunately, on his first day of training, he meets Sly Spawn. His friend Boris tries to stick up for him but is pushed aside and Todd is flung into a swimming pool. His first race does not go well but he improves race by race. Soon, Todd's friend Cleopatra gets revenge on Sly when he gives Todd a black eye by showering him in spiders. Sly freaks out and runs away screaming. When Todd starts work the day after his first race, things go well at first, but Sly slips two bottles of Frogjuice into Todd's bag. He was caught on camera however and sued, despite Victor trying to bribe Todd. Several days later, Todd nearly dies in a race. One of Sly's friends spreads honey on a log that was part of the race track. Todd falls into the water below and almost drowns. He misses three races in hospital and for this reason, he is given free passage into Superfrog. A few days before the race, Todd and Boris go to Victor, Sly's dad's, mansion to investigate. Todd is kidnapped but finds his dad. They are rescued by Cleopatra and the police and Victor's plan to release Pike into frog pond fails. Todd wins Superfrog and pays the bill, but one month later, somehow Victor's henchmen release the Pike...

Subplots

*At the start of the book, Todd's father gets abducted by three toads. These toads turn out to be working for Victor Spawn. After Todd finds a map of Victor's mansion and then sees massive trucks of fish food at Victor's mansion, he and Boris decide to investigate. It turns out that Victor plans to release Pike into Frog Pond so that his resort will thrive. When Cleopatra sees what is going on, she phones the police who raid the mansion and stop the Pike escaping. Victor, Sly and all the toads working in the mansion are arrested and put in prison.
*Todd begins to work in the Frogjuice Factory to help pay off some of the weekly bills. However, after a few weeks, Sly Spawn tries to get Todd sacked by putting two bottles of Frogjuice in his bag. Sly's actions are caught on camera and he is sued but, after intervention from his father, only receives a small community service order and an equally small fine.But the one thing is that i don't know how you can chat with your frog?

Characters in "Frog City and the Racing Frogs"

Main Characters

*Todd Tinpot: A young frog who needs to win the next Superfrog race or else be evicted from his home.
*Boris: One of Todd's friends. He started racing three days before Todd.
*Cleopatra: Another of Todd's friends.
*Sly Spawn: Son of Victor Spawn. He is Todd's racing rival and later tries to make Todd lose his job.
*Victor Spawn: Sly's dad. He plans to unleash Pike into Frog Pond so frogs will stay in his new resort, Las Mega.
*Mrs. Tinpot: Todd's mother. Has gone insane after Todd's father's disappearance.

Minor Characters

*The Fat Toad: A storyteller who tells of Frog Pond's history and that of Frogjuice.
*Gecko: A lizard who teaches Todd several key skills to help him win Superfrog.
*Mr. Tinpot: Todd's dad. He is kidnapped when spying on Victor for the police.

Trivia

*The original version of the book only gave Victor and the Pike brief cameo mentions. This was changed after a suggestion from the publishers. [Frog Trainer's Handbook]
*Todd states that the prize for winning Superfrog is 100 Gold pieces when 100 Gold pieces was the prize for winning a daily race in the original Racing Frogs. The real prize at that time was 600 Gold pieces
*On a frog's last racing day before retiring, it says that they "meet a wise old Lizard who provided crucial information for an extra training session." This could be a reference to Gecko.

References