Frog, an adventurous, energetic, and gregarious frog, and Toad, a talented, passionate, and at times anxious and bumbling toad, are best friends. These two characters share a great bond, one of deep friendship and love. They are, a unique and warm pair, living their best life in the woods together. They have their ups and their downs, their own unique tastes and desires, but trust each other enough to explore new things together. Created by Arnold Lobel in 1970, these two characters remain timeless.

Somehow, growing up, these stories were not part of my regular rotation. I have to admit, reading these stories for the first time fills me with a kind of joy and sadness that I don't often get from kids stories. Joy in seeing these two companions so willingly express their great love for each other, and sadness, knowing how hard it can be to follow their example. Their relationship feels very real, in the sense that, it is not without its tensions. The story "Alone" is an example of the kind of anxious tension that can often exist in even the best of relationships.

In this story, Toad wrestles with doubt over his friendship with Frog, after reading a note that states "Dear Toad, I am not at home. I went out. I want to be alone." We have all felt this feeling before, and may have even expressed it as Toad does; “Frog has me for a friend. Why does he want to be alone?”, but much like in our own lives, Frog and Toad shows us that being alone isn't always negative. When Toad discovers Frog sitting alone on a stone (after falling into the pond, and ruining the lunch he prepared), Frog explains “I am happy. I am very happy. This morning when I woke up I felt good because the sun was shining. I felt good because I was a frog. And I felt good because I have you for a friend. I wanted to be alone. I wanted to think about how fine everything is.” in the end, they are content, alone, but together.

Arnold Lobel sadly, was a victim of the AIDs crises, and passed in 1987. He was survived by his ex-wife Anita Kempler, their two children, Adrianne and Adam, and his then partner Howard Weiner. Lobel led a life that I'm sure many gay men led at the time, a life that Frog and Toad are an expression of. He said, in a 1977 interview with the children's-book journal The Lion and the Unicorn, three years after coming out to his family,

You know, if an adult has an unhappy love affair, he writes about it. He exorcises it out of himself, perhaps, by writing a novel about it. Well, if I have an unhappy love affair, I have to somehow use all that pain and suffering but turn it into a work for children.

I could go on and write countless words here about these two characters, but I think this 2016 article in The New Yorker and this 2024 article from USA Today would serve you better than anything I might conjure. Here's to you Frog and Toad!

Show Frog and Toad, sitting alone, together.

(also, the AppleTV Frog and Toad show is great)

This is (hopefully) going to be a monthly rotating post. I might not be able to do a write-up like this every month, so if you have any thoughts on book series or children/young-adult authors you wish to highlight, and want to write something, please let me know!

Reminders:

So what are you all reading with the family? Any good gets from the library recently?