Frog Girl
Written and illustrated by Paul
Owen Lewis
Beyond Words Publishing, Hillsboro,
Oregon, 1997
4+ years
The village chief's youngest daughter discovers
that all the frogs of a nearby lake have been captured by two boys of her
tribe. When she approaches the lake, the one remaining frog opens its surface
like lifting a blanket and takes her on a journey beneath its surface to
a large deserted village. There she meets a Grandmother grieving the loss
of her grandchildren. My children have been taken, she says, and
I no longer have their songs to comfort me.
At
this moment the house under the lake begins to shake, and the house begins
to burn. The princess returns
to the shore to view a volcanic eruption about
to destroy her now deserted village. She finds the frogs hidden away in a basket
and rushes to return them to their home. As she does so, a rain begins to fall,
and the volcano quiets. When her people return, she pleads with them to treat
the frogs as their brothers and sisters.
This theme of Heroic Adventure is powerfully
represented in this homage to the Haida, Tlingit and other Native peoples
of the Northwest Coast of North America.
The artwork is bold and strong, providing rich ethnic detail to the great drama
of the adventure. The princess's flight through the forest, clutching the basket
of frogs to her chest as she dashes through a burning forest is particularly
magnificent. After the story concludes, the author also provides a helpful commentary
about the mythology of the region.
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