First, the world is all dark. A little bit muddled and confused.
The only sound dripping water and small bubbles gurgling.
In that darkness and quiet, everyone is alone.
This is the world in the well.
This book opens with black pages. We can see a solitary frog sitting at the bottom of a well. He makes a little croak and then discovers he can sing. I am thinking the acoustics in the well would be fabulous. His song is heard by others. It is the first song and now it swells into a chorus of voices.
"Their song is friendship and family, and with it the frogs feel brave."
Singing together makes the frogs feel so brave that they are able to venture out into the world where they are greeted by the night sky and the moon - "a perfect circle moon". (A great opportunity to talk to a young library group about the significance of the full moon and also the phases of the moon).
Do you love the sound of frogs - especially at night? I do. I sometimes hear them near my house. This book explores a reason why frogs love to sing in the night. You can hear 15 Australian frogs here - this is well worth a listen.
Here is another text quote:
"That even in dark times, when we come together with song or dance or story, suddenly the world is brighter and no one needs to be alone."
You can see Jazz Money a Wiradjuri poet and her friend artist Jason Phu talking about their book here. This is their debut picture book. And here are some teachers notes from the publisher and a set from Lamont.
Read more about Jason Phu here. He has been a finalist in the Sulman Prize (2023, 2022, 2019, 2018), The Archibald Prize (2023, 2015, 2014), The Wynne Prize (2023), the Ramsay Art Prize and Australia’s premier prize for emerging artists (2017), the NSW Emerging Visual Arts Fellowship (2017), and the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship (2016). He is clearly a very successful artist.
Jazz Money talks about her story:
A few years ago, Jason asked me to write about an artwork he was making, which was all about singing frogs. We spoke about ancestral frog stories, and at that time I was really obsessed with choirs and the joyful act of singing in groups – I still am obsessed with how special it is to sing with other people! Instead of writing an art essay I decided to write a short story about singing frogs. I wrote the first draft of the story very quickly. I was having so much fun writing. After finishing the story, I thought it would make a good children’s book and asked Jason if he would like to illustrate. In the story the frogs find one another first through song, then by dancing, hopping and moving out of the well into the light of the moon. I think being a part of communities is so important to help us feel safe, nurtured, joyous and supported and I am glad that the frogs reminded me of the power of gathering together.
Thank you to University of Queensland Press for sending me a review copy of The Frog's First Song. On Saturday 12th July you can meet the creators of this book at our city bookstore Kinokinuya and also on 5th July at Gleebooks Kids.
The supplied notes say this book was inspired by a Chinese parable 'The frog in the well' and First Nations Creation stories. I would like to find a list of First Nations Stories featuring frogs - I can only think of the famous one about Tiddalick but I am sure there are others. If I was sharing The Frog's Song with a group of students I think I would read the text without the illustrations as a first experience and then allow some time for the group to talk about the art used in this book.
I found this information about the Chinese proverb:
The idiom the frog at the bottom of the well (or “look at the sky from the bottom of a well) is from “Zhuang Zi”, a famous Taoism Book. It means to have a narrow view of the world, to have only superficial knowledge of something, or to be short-sighted.
My friend from Kinderbookswitheverything remembered The Peasant Prince - the story of the dancer Li Cunxin - also referred to this Chinese story:
"The story of Li Cunxin’s remarkable life has already reached thousands of readers throughout the world, a story that was first published in 2003 as Mao’s Last Dancer. But it has always been a story about childhood, and now, with the publication of this picture book version, Li’s story will be enjoyed by very young children as well. Our picture book story begins with Li and his beloved father flying a kite together on the bleak, wind-swept fields around Li’s childhood village. It is here that Li’s father tells him an old Chinese fable - a story about a frog who was determined to escape from a deep, dark well. This story of the little frog’s determination touched Li so much that it became a constant reminder to him of his own life and of how, if he was just as determined, he might be able to escape from his life of poverty".
Scholastic. Read more on the NCACL (National Centre for Australian Children's Literature)
Picture Books for Older Readers database. You can see a video of The Peasant Prince
here.
Here are a couple of other splendid Chinese stories, I have previously discussed, by the Hans Christian Andersen award winner Cao Wenxuan (I am keen to see his new book Flying High):
With older students you could compare The First Frog's song with this famous story from Iran:
