ISBN 978-1-922722-67-6
PAPERBACK   I  176 pages

AVAILABLE THROUGH
TITLE PAGE  (for booksellers) or DIRECT FROM THE AUTHOR (for readers)

Robert the Frog

What I have in my heart and soul must find a way out.

That’s the reason for music.

Robert the Frog is a timeless tale about an adventurous young frog who is accidentally swept from his home by a raging river. After a long, dangerous journey he finds himself in a strange new home.

Here he overcomes his fear and sense of loss with the help of a welcoming, friendly farmer, who communicates with him through music.

It is this unexpected connection that gives Robert hope that he will survive in these new surrounds, and that one day he will be able to find his way home.

About the Author

After graduating University with a business degree, Steve B. McGlaughlin, having not the slightest clue as to what he should or might be, did the only thing he could think to do, which was to grow his hair long and travel the world. In retrospect, as though instinctively following Kierkegaard’s maxim that life must be lived forwards but can only be understood backwards, there was clearly some hidden method at work in this meandering adventure through Europe and Asia.

For it was on it that Steve, quite unexpectedly, found himself busking and living in Prague in the magical, joyful summer the year after the Czech Velvet Revolution. An experience which undoubtedly provided the initial creative spark for his first novel, Robert the Frog, a story which has music and hope at its heart.

Upon returning home, alongside working in market research and as a copywriter, Steve became part of the Australian music and comedy scenes. A career that in summary fittingly sounds like the beginning of a joke: did you hear the one about the guy who wrote years of TV sketch comedy, played guitar in 90s alternative bands, and composed hit songs for Polish, Vietnamese and Korean pop stars?

In 2013, Steve undertook a Master of Counselling and Psychotherapy degree. It proved a transformative experience, both on a personal and creative level, providing, as it did, further impetus, experiences and content for his stories and novels.

Similar to the works of his literary guides C. S. Lewis, Richard Adams and Michael Morpurgo, Steve’s stories can be read on two distinct levels. Their surface tells thoughtful, wistful, at times funny, all-ages tales of the adventures of anthropomorphised animals who embark on journeys of great risk.

But their undercurrent is a meditation on, or even an ode to, the belief that the most seemingly intractable grief and loss can be reached and transformed through the subtle and beautiful arts: creativity, music, connection and hope. Or as the Beethoven quote on Robert the Frog’s cover proclaims, and which the book holds as an inspirational truth: “What I have in my heart and soul must find a way out. That’s the reason for music.”

Testimonials

It is a beautifully crafted novel that’s not merely about music, but is itself musical; the writing flows and pulses with rhythms that effortlessly carry us on Robert’s strange, deeply moving journey. I was stilled, marvelling, for some time after finishing it. Like the greatest fables, we totally identify with the animals and their journey. Moving and profound.

J.B

The book is delightful, well done a thousand times; Robert is such an endearing character. I only wish I could have it in picture book form and then I could have it at school in the therapy room.

D.A