An Aussie angler’s photo that was so odd it surprised the world is now the subject of a children’s story. The short illustrated book recreates the moment the man hooked a large fish and discovered a bewildered green frog hiding inside its mouth.
After the picture went viral on social media, it became a sensation and was featured on the Today Show in the United States and several pages were dedicated to it in a Russian newspaper. The photographer Angus James rejected offers to sell the rights in 2014 and quietly held onto them for close to a decade, thinking he’d eventually find a creative purpose for it.
Then as his wife Amy James recovered from the birth of their first child, she began writing a short poem about the famous frog and fish.
“My baby refused to sleep in a crib, so I was ‘nap-trapped’, sitting with him on me. My phone was dead and I was bored so I started to write,” she told Yahoo News. “The poem started forming in my mind, so I wrote it down and I shared it with Angus.”
What happened to the fish and the frog?
Amy wrote a story around the viral photograph taken by her husband Angus. Source: Supplied
The hardest part of bringing the story to life was finding the right illustrator because Amy was determined to find someone who could capture the frogs’ personalities. Having grown up close to where the fish was caught, she was familiar with the landscape and wanted it to capture the magical world she remembered from her childhood.
At the heart of the story is a message about not giving up. While the frog probably thought its days were numbered after it was swallowed, the tiny amphibian was saved by the fisherman, who released both it and the fish.
Angus hooked the large jungle perch close to the Far North Queensland town of Tully. A large storm was moving in and he believes the frog was likely swallowed during a feeding frenzy. “It was being pretty greedy and took my lure even though it had a mouthful of frog,” he told Yahoo News.
Child delights in seeing picture of dad in book
Angus’s 2-year-old has delighted in seeing his dad illustrated in the book. Source: Supplied
The couple’s oldest child is now two years old and it’s exciting for him to see illustrations of his dad by UK-based illustrator Heather May Williams in the book.
“He looks at the book and says: There’s daddy. It’s a nice feeling, knowing that my wife is telling this story that will live on forever now,” he said.
The book is available for order in both hard copy and digital via Amazon.
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