The Frog Musicians

By AM Kirkby

Mr Malster has four little porcelain frogs on his dresser; little frogs dressed up in finery, with their musical instruments.

He doesn't realise they play real music. But they do. And when Fern, the accordion player, decides she wants to find a tune that she heard once, but could never remember, they take the courageous decision to set off in search of the lost music.

They ask the monkey mandarin, the Indian peacock, the blackbird, the cuckoo in the clock. No one can help. The frogs make their way to the distant woods in the hope that they'll find it there...

This book is for anyone with a love of music and a sense of wonder.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AM Kirkby
• Release date: Apr 24, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463891957

AM Kirkby

A M Kirkby writes a wide range of fiction, including fantasy, SF and historical novels and short stories.

Book preview

The Frog Musicians

by A.M.Kirkby

Published by A.M.Kirkby at Smashwords

Copyright 2020 A.M.Kirkby

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Other titles by this author:

A Ghost Story of the Norfolk Broads

Sword of Justice

Green Land

Doppelganger

Walsingham Way

The Tin Heart

Sacrifices

Egerius

Wake the Dragon

Rise Above

Not a Ghost Story

Haunted

Westminster Chimes

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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The frog musicians

Once upon a time, said the storyteller, there were four frog musicians.

(Was one of them a frog prince? Asked the little boy.

All of them were, for every frog is a prince, replied the storyteller.)

They were named Fern, Jem, Simeon and Riccardo.

And their frog names, for every frog has a special frog name, were Viridian, Emerald, Chartreuse, and Creme-de-Menthe.

Emerald is a bright bright green, and Viridian is a kind of bluey-green, and Creme-de-Menthe is a darker green, and Chartreuse is a pale green that glints almost yellow if you lift your glass to the light. Every frog family has its colour - Sage, Lime, Lettuce, Olive, Mint, Forest, Jade, Pine, Lawn. There are the Deep-Seas of Yarmouth, and the Pineforests of the Welsh borders, and the Italian Verdis and Cavolos.

But when Jem played his clarinet, he called himself just Jemmy Green.

So you can imagine what a beautiful quartet these frogs made. Fern in her dark coat with a floppy black hat, and Riccardo with his top hat and bright blue waistcoat; Jem in a red frock coat, and Simeon whose coat and straw hat were both bright yellow. And each frog a slightly different and equally beautiful shade of green.

They had been playing together every Sunday afternoon for years. Fern was the youngest, a lively girl frog with a monster-size accordion and an active imagination. She would write tunes, and make up stories, and sometimes played one of those chords that sounds wrong at first, and then you realise it's just the right chord for the music. She was a real prince among frogs.

(Wasn't she a princess? Asked the little girl.

She was