Frog and Toad Are Friends is an American children's picture book, written and illustrated by Arnold Lobel and published by Harper & Row in 1970.It inaugurated the Frog and Toad series, whose four books completed by Lobel comprise five easy-to-read short stories each. It was a Caldecott Honor Book, or runner-up for the American Library Association Caldecott Medal, which recognizes the year's best illustration in an American children's picture book.