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Frog Girl illustration
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.
spacer 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.
spacerThis 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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http://www.ksu.edu/wwparent/story/award/r-froggirl.htm-- Revised: February 2, 2004

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