The Froggy Library

Spend your summer on Soggy Stump! This cozy, colorful, and amphibious graphic novel adventure draws inspiration from the author’s background as a Diné librarian.

Anura is a young frog spending the summer back home with their grandmother. With some…er…gentle prodding from Grandma, they get a job working at the local library. It’s about 11 minutes in when they’re tasked with a big project: create an archive that captures what makes Soggy Stump so special. What the heck is even an archive?! And so begins a summer full of fry bread, weaving, zines, community gardens, manga, and (maybe) an answer to the question of: how do we preserve the knowledge, wisdom, and memories of the ones we love? Inspired by Julie Fiveash’s Diné background and career as a librarian, and infused throughout with the colors of the Southwest, The Froggy Library is a love letter to Native communities, summers with friends and family, and libraries everywhere.

Author Biography

Julie Fiveash (they/them) is a nonbinary Diné cartoonist and zinester, stationary fiend, and former Librarian for American Indigenous Studies at Harvard University. They received their B.A. in Studio Art from Dartmouth College and graduated from UCLA with an MLIS in 2021, focusing on Indigenous Librarianship and working at UCLA’s American Indian Studies Center Library. Julie’s interests include Indigenous librarianship, Indigenous publishing, community archives, and drawing animals, plants, fan art, and many things slice-of-life. They also enjoy playing Animal Crossing, reading manga, and buying too many plants. Find Julie at @jooliefiveash! Author residence: Los Angeles, CA