I’m sure you were expecting a Fairy Friday, so I thought I would surprise you. Especially since I might have given you the impression that i don’t like frogs, given the way I talked about poor silly Toad of Toad Hall in my Wind in the Willows series and I wouldn’t want Kermit to feel offended. Plus, there’s lost of stories you can set up with a frog puppet, going from the Brothers Grimm (The Frog Prince, Cherry the Frog Bride) to Russian fairy-tales (The Frog Princess or the famous The Scorpion and the Frog, which is not an Aesop fable), from Scottish gruesome stories of love and beheadings (The Tale of the Queen Who Sought a Drink From a Certain Well and its more consensual variant The Well of the World’s End, or Frog went a-courting) to French folk and literary fairy tales (The Little Green Frog, The Benevolent Frog). You can go ancient Greek and have yourself an epic Batrachomyomachia (you’re going to need some mice for that) or some more classical Aesop fairy-tales (The Frogs and the Sun, The Frogs who desired a King, The Frog and the Ox, The Frog and the Mouse… frogs are not very smart in Aesop’s tales) or some ambitious Aristophanes play.
You can also use frogs for very long journeys if you have kids.
Five little speckled frogs,
Sat on a speckled log,
Eating the most delicious flies (yum, yum!)
One jumped into the pool,
Where it was nice and cool,
Then there are four green speckled frogs.
Or you could honour Black History Month and try to approach some African folk-tales: there’s a tale called “The Maiden, the Frog, and the Chief’s Son”, with some premises and situations very similar to our Cinderella. It was firstly explored by American folklorist William Bascon and published in a 1917 number of the Journal of the Folklore Institute and then as “Cinderella in Africa”. Bascom was a specialist in the art and culture of West Africa, especially the Yoruba of Nigeria.
There’s also an African American tale, “What the Frog said”, about how vain attempts are to pursue freedom when you’re a slave, and it’ll make your skin crawl.
My favourite frog, however, is from Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher,
Beatrix Potter, illustration from page 32 of “A Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher”
1. Adventure in a Box
I already said I’m fond of shadow theatres, so I need not repeat myself. This Canadian artisan shop, run by Liska Myers, has a specific set for your Princess and the Frog fairy-tale rendition, completed with a princess, a frog, a prince, a king, a golden ball, a well, a dining table, and a bed. Knock yourselves our.
2. Funny Bunny Company
I have rarely seen puppets so beautiful as the ones manufactured by this artisan based in Chelyabinsk, Russia. She makes dolls and clothes and felted puppets, but the ones we’re looking for are the finger puppets: the home pets are cute enough, but the pet birds and the woodland animals are absolutely fantastic. The frog we’re looking for is in this last set.
3. Game Guardians
A frog is also the perfect prop if you want to go as a witch, this carnival, so maybe you want to sew one yourself. If so, Laura Holser from Indiana has you covered with this digital, downloadable set of instructions to cut and sew your sidekick. And yes, in case you’re wondering, the set also includes instructions for the cushion.
Detailed full size pattern with instructions, materials list and 44 step by step photos.
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