The Underground Adventure of the Brave Frog Renée
Mikolaj Pa and Gosia Herba
Greystone Kids

As she sits eating her breakfast egg, a question pops into Renée the frog’s mind: “Is the Earth like a soft-boiled egg inside?” she wonders and decides to go on an expedition to find the answer right after breakfast.

With a bag packed full of useful items off she goes listening attentively to the sounds on the ground but she wants to get underground and searches for an entrance. Up pops an earthworm and when Renée talks of her investigation, the worm ridicules it, offering another notion. Earthworm also directs her to Mole’s burrow saying it’s the quickest way for non-earthworms to get underground.

The accommodating worm assists Renée towards a tunnel. Therein she discovers a tangle of oak tree roots, an old coin, dung beetle larvae, dinosaur skeletons and a vast ant city. It’s there in the tunnels that Renée gets lost. The Ant Queen invites the frog to appear before her and Renée offers the Ant Queen a perfect gift: a pine cone. By way of return, the delighted Queen tells another ant, General Beatrice, to take the frog to the Cave of Stars – a sparkling mineral cave. Suddenly a massive millipede, jaws open wide, threatens to eat them but quick-thinking Renée shares her sandwiches with it.

The millipede then directs Renée and Beatrice towards the lava river, warning of its danger and Renée is able to pay their way for a ride on a Magma swan. They don protective suits but before they reach Earth’s too-hot core a guard stops them. I wonder what said guard tells the travellers about the Earth’s core … A selfie is taken and the friends proceed back to the surface via – can you believe it – a lift.

A quirky tale with lots of twists and dramatic, gouache and pencil illustrations showing the journey of one eccentric, resourceful amphibian with an inquisitive mind and a taste for adventure.