The Magic Garden Frog
Shann Jones and Hannah Rounding
Graffeg

Mamgu has a Magic Garden that she tends carefully. It’s a place her three grandchildren, Isabella, Elis and Macsen love to visit, especially enjoying all the different things that are round shaped.

One day while exploring, they find something new in the fountain; it’s a frog they name Suki. As the children watch her, the frog suddenly sticks out her long tongue and flicks it three times making something unexpected happen. The three children shrink and fall into the pond with a splash. The next thing they know is that they’ve become wiggly tadpoles, able to breathe under the water.

So begins a magical adventure during which as a seeming metamorphosis takes place, they learn lots of interesting facts about frogs, their lifecycle and their habitat, and sadly that frog numbers are declining.
After the story is a spread encouraging children to go outside and look carefully at the nature that is all around and perhaps create their own ‘Magic Garden’. It’s never too soon to start introducing young children to the wonders of the great outdoors and this story offers a good starting point.

Both the author and illustrator feel the book is a very personal project. The Magic Garden author Shann Jones writes about, is based on her own garden in Wales and the grandchildren characters are based on her own grandchildren, whose names she used for the story. Illustrator Hannah Rounding visited Shann’s garden and met the real Isabella, Elis and Macsen several times while creating her beautiful mixed media, layered artwork for the book.

Let’s hope their timely tale, seen in part from a frog’s perspective, encourages youngsters to become environmental activists in whatever way feels right for them.
(A proportion of the royalties from sales of the book will be given to the charity Froglife.)