Frog and Toad Bookmark | Arnold Lobel Watercolor Art | LGBTQ Friendship Classic

I am here. And you are here. That is enough. For every reader who loved these books as a child and returned to them as an adult and understood them differently and loved them more completely. For every reader who recognized in Frog and Toad something that the world around Arnold Lobel did not have a safe place for him to say directly and that he said anyway in the language of cookies and letters and two chairs side by side on a porch and a garden that grew because one friend showed up every day until it did. For every reader who has ever had a Frog or been a Toad or been both at different times in the same friendship. This bookmark is for all of you. It has always been for all of you. ✦ ABOUT THIS BOOKMARK A richly illustrated watercolor scene rendered in the warm soft palette of Arnold Lobel's original illustrations — the particular gentle greens and warm golds and soft creams of a world that was made with complete love and that the reader enters completely and does not want to leave. The scene is a single continuous immersive illustration of the world of Frog and Toad — the two small woodland houses side by side, the garden between them in full warm bloom, the porch with two chairs angled toward each other and a plate of cookies and a letter on the table between them, the meadow path that connects the two houses and that two sets of footprints have walked side by side so many times that the path knows them both. The garden is the emotional center of the upper composition — Toad's garden, the one where the seeds refused to grow until Frog came every day with encouragement and music and reading and everything a seed might need to feel ready to become something, the garden that grew because one friend refused to let the other give up. The garden in full bloom now, warm and green and abundant, the evidence of what showing up every day looks like when it becomes a garden. On the porch table between the two chairs — the plate of cookies. The cookies they ate too many of. The cookies they threw away so they would stop eating them. The cookies the birds ate. The willpower that remained. The willpower that was not as good as cookies but was willpower nonetheless and that is the story of Frog and Toad and also the story of every friendship that has ever tried to be good for each other with mixed results and complete love. The letter beside the cookies — because Toad waited all day for a letter and no letter ever came for him and Frog wrote him a letter so that Toad would have a letter to wait for, one of the most tender acts in all of children's literature resting on a porch table in the morning light worn slightly from being carried very carefully for four days by a snail who was doing his best. The rainbow prismatic light scatters warm and quiet from the morning window across the porch table and the letter and the cookies and the two chairs — the color of the truth in Arnold Lobel's love story present and soft and gentle the way everything in this world is present and soft and gentle, there for anyone who is looking. The path between the two houses in the lower composition — two sets of footprints in the warm earth of a path that has been walked together so many times it has taken on the character of both of them, heading in the same direction until the place where the path divides and each one goes home and the next morning one of them knocks on the other's door and it begins again. I am here. And you are here. That is enough. It has always been enough. It will always be enough. ✦ BOOKMARK DETAILS — Size: 2.05 inches wide by 6.65 inches tall — Printed on premium card stock — Laminated for durability — water resistant and long lasting — Full color watercolor illustration front with matte finish — Arrives ready to use in your current read or to give to the Frog or the Toad in your life immediately ✦ PERFECT FOR — Every adult who loved Frog and Toad as a child and loves them more now — LGBTQ+ readers who have always recognized in Frog and Toad something deeper than friendship and have claimed it completely — Readers who know about Arnold Lobel and what he was saying in the only language available to him in the world he lived in — The friend who is your Frog when you are being a Toad about something — and they show up anyway — Anyone who has ever written someone a letter so they would have a letter to wait for — People who have eaten too many cookies with someone they love and considered it a perfect afternoon — Childhood nostalgia buyers — this bookmark will make someone cry in the best possible way — LGBTQ+ allies who want to honor the full legacy of this beloved series — Book lovers who collect literary bookmarks that mean something — Birthdays — specifically the birthday of your oldest and most devoted friend — Pride month gifts — this is one of the earliest and most beloved LGBTQ+ love stories in American literature and this bookmark honors that legacy with complete warmth and respect — Treating yourself — you have been both Frog and Toad this week and you deserve this ✦ A NOTE ON ARNOLD LOBEL Arnold Lobel published the Frog and Toad series between 1970 and 1979. He was a gay man who never publicly came out during his lifetime. He died in 1987 at the age of fifty-four. His daughter Adrianne Lobel has spoken publicly about her belief that the love between Frog and Toad was her father's expression of something the world around him did not have a safe place for him to say directly — the longing for companionship and devoted love rendered in the language of cookies and letters and two friends sitting side by side on a porch watching the day go by. The Frog and Toad stories are about two friends who show up for each other every single day. They are also, to many readers, a love story — the most tender and most complete love story Arnold Lobel had access to in the time and world he lived in. This bookmark honors both things. It always will. ✦ THE COOKIES They ate too many of them. They threw the rest away. The birds ate all the cookies. They had no more cookies. They still had willpower. Willpower was not as good as cookies. They went home. They each ate many cookies at their own houses where no one could see. This is the greatest short story ever written about friendship and self-control and the complete impossibility of doing either of those things correctly when the right person is sitting beside you. This bookmark has a plate of cookies on it. You will know why. ✦ THE LETTER Toad was sad because he never got any letters. Frog went home and wrote Toad a letter. He gave the letter to a snail to deliver. He went back to Toad's house and told Toad to wait because a letter was coming. They sat on the porch together and waited. Four days later the snail arrived with the letter. Toad read the letter. The letter said Dear Toad I am glad that you are my best friend. Your best friend Frog. That is the whole letter. That is enough. That is everything. ✦ ALSO IN OUR SHOP This bookmark is part of our LGBTQ+ literary collection alongside our Truth Collection honoring The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, our Red White and Royal Blue bookmark, our Fried Green Tomatoes LGBTQ+ bookmark, and our broader collection celebrating the books and the love stories that matter most. See our shop for the full collection. Frog and Toad pairs beautifully with our Beloved Classics Collection for the reader who loves both the books of childhood and the understanding that comes with returning to them as an adult and finding they meant more than you knew. ✦ SHIPPING Ships within 3 to 5 business days. Arrives in a protective sleeve inside a rigid mailer so your bookmark arrives perfectly flat and ready to use. We sent it carefully. We wanted it to arrive in good condition. We are glad that you are our best friend. Your best friends Michelle and Julie. ✦ ABOUT OUR SHOP Every bookmark in our shop is designed and produced professionally by us — made with care in our own studio and printed on premium materials we stand behind completely. We are a small passionate operation and we treat every order like it matters because it does. We are committed to five star service on every single order — from the moment you click to the moment your bookmark arrives at your door flat and perfect and ready to live inside your favorite book. If anything is ever less than exactly right please reach out and we will make it right immediately. We respond to every message promptly and we mean it — real people, real responses, no automated runaround. Thank you for supporting a small independent bookmark maker. It means everything to us and we do not take it for granted. We hope this bookmark finds exactly the right book and exactly the right reader. Michelle and Julie The Luna and Loom 📚