by Moe Zilla

Created on: May 26, 2010

"Once upon a time there was a frog called Mr. Jeremy Fisher…

Beatrix Potter wrote that sentence in 1893, in a letter to the son of her former governess, according to Wikipedia. It was nine years before she'd even publish "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," her first children's book, in 1902. She'd simply wanted to tell a story about a frog - but 13 years later, she'd revisit the tale, and add it to her growing set of popular series of children's books.

"He lived in a little damp house amongst the buttercups at the edge of a pond…"

In his red waistcoast, leaning back to read a newspaper, the frog looks like a dandy and a carefree bachelor. "The water was all slippy-sloppy in the larder in the back passage," Potter writes - but the frog looks down at the water in his hallway with a wry smile on his face. Potter writes that the frog actually likes getting his feet wet - and "nobody ever scolded him about it." He looks happy in his quaint little house, surrounded by full-sized buttercups, and his only problem seems to be catching enough fish to invite his friends over for dinner!

There's adorable drawings of the frog hopping through the reeds, and with its fishing theme, there's a chance that it's the Beatrix Potter book might have a special appeal to some fathers. The frog waits patiently with his line in the water, sitting cross-legged in the rain on a lily pad. "The rain trickled down his back, and for nearly an hour he stared at the float…"

It's essentially just the story of a day spent fishing - except the fisherman is a frog, which makes it feel special and magical. Beatrix Potter's illustrations are always a luscious treat, and this time she's drawing a peaceful day of relaxation in the sunny outdoors. At first it seems like Jeremy Fisher's biggest challenge will be that he catches a big, prickly stickleback fish instead of a meal-sized minnow. But it soon turns out he's got much bigger problems - when he's swallowed whole by a leaping trout!

The fish spits out the frog - it didn't like the taste of his galoshes - and the frog decides to abandon fishing altogether, forever. He still invites his friends over for dinner, and just serves them food he's already got in his larder. Nothing ever gets resolved, but nothing really needs to in his dandy, carefree world.

Jeremy Fisher simply goes back to the life of a gentleman frog!

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