Book excerpt: Beside the Pond: A Big Old Garden Story is a nature-inspired children's book in the spirit of Thornton Burgess and Beatrix Potter. It is the sequel to the well-received nature-inspired children's book, A Year in the Big Old Garden. Like its predecessor, Beside the Pond introduces young readers to a cast of backyard birds and animals, and follows their adventures through the seasons. Fans of the Big Old Garden will meet new friends as well as some old ones, and experience the world through the perspective of a bullfrog who has a little problem.