Lobel states that he knew as a child that he was destined to write children’s books. The exhibit was geared towards children, as it should be. There were finger puppets from the Mouse Soup book series for kids to enjoy, drawing tables and stacks of Lobel books.

The Frog and Toad series was the centerpiece and included original ink drawings, notebooks of scrawled pictures and story ideas. 11:00 am on a Thursday is the right time to visit a museum we had the entire Lobel exhibit mostly to ourselves. The Contemporary Jewish Museum here in San Francisco has hosted an exhibit on Arnold Lobel for the past few months – it closes this weekend, so today my wife, daughter and I paid a visit to the exhibit. Those of us fortunate enough to have cut our teeth on Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad series have experienced all of the great things of reading twice: the first is when we read these touching, funny and beautiful books that detail the wonderful parts of friendship the second is recalling fondly those moments spent in Frog and Toad’s world – whether revisiting that world accessing Nostalgia or reading the stories to your children, grandchildren and seeing Frog and Toad anew through their eyes. Those stories of our youth, when the life-long joys of reading were just begin to flourish, are often some of the most special. To be making books for children is to be in a sort of state of grace.īooks have their own special resonance in the portion of our brain that holds Nostalgia. This is a chapter book, published 51 years ago, that doesn't feel one bit dated, unless you take their clothing into consideration. Whatever they were, they were two relatable sort-of hippies that became iconic figures of the 1970s and have lived on through all three of my kids' childhoods. I mean, why make it more confusing than it already is?

or perhaps just British?).Įither way, I think that maybe it's enough to anthropomorphize two chapter book amphibians by giving them classic 1970s style corduroy blazers and bell bottoms. Growing up reading them, I never wondered at their possible sexuality I could only admire them for their plucky independence (they lived alone in their own homes, with no parents!), and their freedom to stop whatever they were doing, mid-day, to sip tea with cookies (hey, maybe they were gay. He claims that Frog and Toad were early role models of his, and I am fascinated by such a notion, but, I must admit, I've always thought of them less as gay and more as amphibious. My friend is a gay man, so I often accuse him of projecting his beliefs onto unsuspecting puppets like Bert and Ernie and singers like George Michael (yes, he was the first person to tell me that my future dream husband and soul mate, George Michael, was gay, and I still hate him for that scandalous lie). I have a friend, who I grew up with, who is convinced that Frog and Toad are gay.

Arnold lobel frog and toad