Franklin Frog and the Fallen Tree by Gregory Ogden Printed Book

Written and illustrated by Green Girl Studios artist and owner Gregory Paul Ogden.

***New York Book Festival Honorable Mention

***Hollywood Book Festival Honorable Mention

A heartfelt, beautifully illustrated poem for readers of all ages. Set deep in the woods in a place outside of time, Franklin Frog and his wide variety of woodland neighbors seek to help their mutual friends when crisis falls. Meticulous black-and-white illustrations accompany this 36-verse poem of 5-line iambic heptameter.

SAMPLE:

Long ago, within the forest far outside of town,

Franklin Frog awoke and heard an oak tree falling down.

He peered outside his window on that morning in July,

marveled at the fallen, ancient oak that lay nearby

and gazed above the leaves into the newly opened sky.

Crossing through the door, he raised a hand to block the sun,

whose blazing, blinding light exposed what damage had been done:

Franklin's favorite foxtail ferns lay flattened in the grass,

his fancy fence now nothing but a fallen, fractured mass

beneath the trunk where other beasts had started to amass.

A whirling breeze blew ruffled leaves where mangled nests lay tattered,

scattered through the broken tree where fallen eggs lay shattered.

Jagged spikes of old, dry wood struck out like splintered bone,

torn from mighty trunk that now lay dead on grass and stone,

still and cold, where flower buds and bushes once had grown.