The Tale of a Frog. Max Velthuijs, an Artist with More than One Talent

All over the world the friendly, green, ever-so-naïve Frog in his red and white striped swimming-trunks is a much loved figure in families, schools, nurseries and libraries. His father and creator Max Velthuijs, a modest Dutch artist who was ‘only trying to do the best he could' never achieved the same fame as his green alter ego. He died on January 25, 2005, only four months after he received the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustrations in Cape Town, still busily creating new stories about his best friend Frog. The great international success of the Frog books came relatively late in Velthuijs' life, at a time when most people give up work and settle into retirement. Not so with Velthuijs, who became world famous on reaching his eightieth birthday.