Book Launch: How to Catch a Frog by Heather Ross

Much of Heather Ross’s creative work as a fabric designer, illustrator, and crafter has been inspired by having been born into but rarely actively supervised by, an eccentric family of artists and idealists in a rural corner of Vermont during the 1970s. Her environment was defined by stunning natural beauty, innovative living, and daily lessons in self-reliance. It also included equal parts of general dysfunction, a self- imposed but nearly inescapable poverty, and little exposure to basic life skills that would prepare her for The Real World.

In How to Catch a Frog, Ross looks back at her childhood and recounts how she found her own place in the adult world by depending on the unconventional set of life skills that her unique upbringing gave her.

With every essay, Ross includes her signature illustrations and with some she shares a corresponding DIY project or lesson: how to make coffee logs for the fire, how to build a teepee out of plastic flowers, how to fend off a bear, how to start a children’s clothing line, how to not turn into your mother, and, of course, how to catch a frog.

Ross’s lively, funny, and sometimes heartbreaking memoir is a testament to the richness and strength of the creative spirit. Readers are sure to fall in love with How to Catch a Frog and appreciate—and recognize—the lessons it shares about life, love, family, dysfunction, survival, and DIY.