The Story of Frog Belly Rat Bone [Paperback]

FROG BELLY plants the idea that with some strategy, good communication, and goodwill, you can grow wonderful things. — PORTLAND PRESS HERALD

Once upon a time, in a gray endless place called Cementland, there lived a boy who wished to find a treasure. After searching through piles of toaster ovens and wet smelly socks, he spies a box filled with specks and a note that says, "Put these wondrous riches in the earth and enjoy." Horrified to learn that thieves are after his treasure, the boy scrounges in the junkyard and conjures a scarecrow-like creature to stand guard: Frog Belly Rat Bone, king and protector of the specks. With subtle tones and bursts of glowing color, Tim Ering’s surreal artwork and hand-lettered text exude all the whimsy of an inspired imagination — and the wonders of a natural world that awaits discovery, even in Cementland.

A NICK JR. FAMILY MAGAZINE Best Book of the Year

A New England Book Show Juvenile Category Winner

A New York Book Show Children’s Trade Hardcover WinnerTimothy Basil Ering's THE STORY OF FROG BELLY RAT BONE provides a dark-colored picturebook with handwritten pages as it tells of a boy's find of a strange, wonderful box filled with magic.
—Children's Bookwatch

. . . the art and the design are extraordinary. Ering's combination of hand-lettered text and scribbly, muddy, scratchy pictures looks like a collaboration between Tim Burton and Ralph Steadman (in a good mood).
—Booklist

The big revelation here is newcomer Timothy Basil Ering's jaw-dropping illustrations: his moody, dramatically layered acrylics plunge us into a surreal otherworld about to flower.
—FamilyFun

This compelling fantasy with whimsical illustrations celebrates the natural world and the world of imagl$