A Soggy Stump Deep Dive: Preview THE FROGGY LIBRARY by Julie Fiveash

As many of you are well aware, November is Native American Heritage Month here in the States. I was asked recently, then, if I had any interest in hosting a preview of some pages from author/illustrator Julie Fiveash’s upcoming graphic novel The Froggy Library (out April 14, 2026). So I looked into it and it turns out, Julie (a most interesting person to follow on Instagram, as it happens) has a kind of killer bio. Here, check this out:

“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.” 

So what’s the story with The Froggy Library then? Well, it sports this description:

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.

I mean, how can you resist it? I certainly couldn’t. Here then are some pages from the book in question. Give it a whirl!

Welp, I’m sold!

As mentioned before, The Froggy Library is out April 14th so be sure to look for it then. And many thanks to Gina Gagliano for setting up this preview of some of the pages! A tasty treat to kick off November. Get ready to hand this to all your Amphibia fans too.

Filed under: Excerpts