Hopping into One Book Blitz with Og the Frog

Hopping into One Book Blitz with Og the Frog 

Daily Times: 

By: Shanon Adame 

February 4, 2025 

Students in Blount County are ready to hop into this year’s One Book Blitz with Life According to Og the Frog. 

The book, published in 2018, dives into the life of Og, a classroom pet frog. 

One Book Blitz is a community-wide initiative, headed by Maryville, Alcoa and Blount County school systems, to get students universally immersed in a book. This year will be the eighth year the program has been in place. 

On Monday morning, schools across Blount County celebrated the book reveal and encouraged students and their families to read about Og’s adventures. 

At Rockford Elementary, students filled the gym while Librarian Jennifer Walker built up a little suspense before the big reveal. The stage curtains drew aside, revealing a classroom scene set up on the stage, complete with a tiny stuffed frog posed inside a tank. 

Dressed as the infamous amphibian, Principal Chad Tipton joined the students to read them an excerpt from chapter one. 

“I love that the characters are kids like them, that have their struggles that they can identify with, and they can see how those kids deal with those things and, hopefully, translate it into their lives,” Walker explained. 

Walker said making One Book Blitz happen is truly a community event. From schools to sponsors to teachers to volunteers, it takes a lot of components and passion for reading to make this event happen for the students of Blount County. 

Each kindergarten through fifth-grade child in every school is given a bag that contains a copy of the book, a Sharpie, a coupon for Chick-fil-A, a kid’s pass to the zoo, a bookmark, a calendar to follow, and a scavenger hunt card. 

From Feb. 3 to Feb. 15, students and families can visit any of the participating business sponsors to get a stamp on their card. 

A letter enclosed in the bag reads, “We encourage you to embrace the spirit of One Book Blitz by setting aside time in the evenings to read with your child.”