He was the size of a frog, only round and blue. He had boggly eyes and a spiky tail and I do remember he had ears like a mouse.' This is the moment that the fictional children in Jeanne Willis's picture book The Bog Baby first discover their friendly swamp creature. Children at Tangmere Primary School in West Sussex, however, got to discover, nurture and eventually release their very own bog babies.
In the story, two young sisters go fishing in the woods and are surprised to find a strange but friendly mystical animal, a bog baby. After putting him in a jam jar, they raise him in the garden shed, feeding him on breadcrumbs. As time passes, however, the girls realise that their bog baby is getting sick, and with the help of their mother they release him back into the swamp. The story is a heart-warming tale of how important it is to respect nature, but also how exciting it can be to explore it.
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