By Protea Boekhuis on
October 15th, 2018
Frog and the Birdsong
Max Velthuijs
Series: Frog
ISBN: 978-1-78344-146-4
Publisher: Andersen Press Ltd
One autumn day Frog discovers a blackbird lying motionless in the grass. Worried, he asks his friends what can be the matter. Very gently and simply the animals begin to understand the meaning of death and the beauty of life.
Max Velthuijs (1923–2005) was a Dutch painter, illustrator and writer, one of the most famous children’s illustrators in the Netherlands. In 2004 he received the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for his “lasting contribution to children’s literature”. Velthuijs is known best for the Frog picture books (Dutch Wikipedia lists 21 titles). The first was Frog in Love, published by Andersen Press in 1989, which gained global recognition.
In his acceptance speech Velthuijs observed: “Drawing a frog is not so difficult. But how do you draw a frog in love? Or a frightened frog? And when I hear from parents and children how much they love Frog and his friends, I am overcome with joy and a feeling of accomplishment. And when you ask me how I did it, I have to answer that question with a simple ‘I do not know’.”
Jury president Jeffrey Garrett credited him with fables of human nobility, rather than Aesop’s “foolishness, vanity, and meanness”.
“The stories of Frog and his diverse group of friends are miniature morality plays for our age, demonstrating in framed vignettes, as if on a stage, that life can be hard but is in the end good, that there will be comfort: do not give up, do not lose faith, for you are stronger than you think, and you are not alone.”
