Amy Lu's View

I love reading the “story for all ages” for our church services (in-person and now virtual) so always do it when I have the opportunity. It lets me relive my storytime days as a youth services librarian in a low-effort way.

Finding a picture book that fits the theme can be tricky, though. For my most recent reading, I turned to the classic wisdom of “Frog and Toad” by Arnold Lobel. I needed a story about stories (how meta!) for the theme “The Stories We Tell,” a kickoff to our storytelling initiative.

And there is a Frog and Toad story called (wait for it…) “The Story.” Perfect. It’s about Toad suffering from storyteller’s block as he tries in vain to think of a story to tell an under-the-weather Frog. Toad tries increasingly desperate means to think of a story, culminating with banging his head against the wall (Don’t try this at home, kids).

I could empathize with Toad. I was an “understudy” to tell a personal story if a back-up was needed, but I could not think of a good story. I found this jarring and frustrating because I actually think of myself as rather a good storyteller in social situations. But everything I could think of seemed like more of an anecdote than a story (no narrative arc) or was actually my mother’s story more than my own.

Oh don’t worry (or hope)–I’m not going to give up on storytelling, and I’m sure I will eventually be sharing something at a church storytelling venue. Not only can I not resist a chance to be in the spotlight, I also learned from Frog that authenticity is the key to successful storytelling.

Afterall, when it was Frog’s turn to tell a story he told a simple but charming and totally true story of two best friends, which soon had the desired effect of helping Toad relax and fall asleep. (Knowing your audience and purpose is another key takeaway).

This was the second time this summer that these literary amphibians have come to my rescue when I needed a story for virtual church. I was so impressed by the humor and insight of Frog and Toad that I jokingly said to Chad, “We should base all our church services on Frog and Toad.”

Okay, that may be a little too much pressure to put on Frog and Toad, but as I thought about it some more, a different kind of inspiration struck: “Hey, what about a blog challenge where I write a post for every Frog and Toad story?”

Okay, maybe not every Frog and Toad story, but every Frog and Toad story in “The Frog and Toad Treasury” that we own as an actual physical book (I think I bought this back in my days working at B. Daltons, so it’s about 25 years old). The treasury is a compilation of the first 3 (out of 4) books: Frog and Toad are Friends, Frog and Toad Together, and Frog and Toad All Year. Each book has 5 stories.

So I officially launch the “15 Days of Frog and Toad Blog Challenge.”

I don’t think this challenge has or needs any rules, but I do have a few disclaimers:

• I’m not going to try and write these posts consecutively (meaning that Frog and Toad-inspired posts will be interspersed with posts about my usual topics of running, drinking, etc. Of course, running and drinking may also be addressed in official Frog and Toad posts).
• I don’t have an end date.
• I don’t have to address the stories in the order they appear in the Treasury.
• Blog posts (like all my others) do NOT have to be good or entertaining–just authentic.
• I will not bang my head against the wall in the writing process (although readers may in the reading process).