Long-time owner of the Forest Lake Jewellers, Alastair Bax, is having his children’s book Croakers Lagoon published in December.
The book is centred around school children Emily and Nathan, who fight to protect Croakers Lagoon from being destroyed with help from a very unusual source.
The idea for Alastair’s story came from his love of frogs and was inspired after a project with the P&C at the Western Suburbs Special School.
“As an avid frog lover, I was tasked with building a frog pond for the school,” he said.
“It was a great learning experience for the children and something fun for me to do.”
A teacher from the school asked Alastair if he would write a story for the students, based around frogs.
“I had never written a book before, but I had a creative mind and thought I would give it a go for the kids,” Alastair said.
“I based all the locations in the book on real areas, with the main location being a lagoon in Willawong”.
After presenting the story to the school, the manuscript found its way into a pile of forgotten treasures until many years later, a chance encounter with a friend’s child breathed new life into it.
“She found the story amongst a pile of other materials and she asked if she could read it,” Alastair said.
“She came back to me a while later and said she loved the story, which made me think I should try and publish it.”
The environmental focus, fuelled by the jeweller’s passion for the subject, includes a glossary with scientific details about the creatures, emphasising local interest and ecological awareness.
“The story is illustrated by a local artist named SaBelle Pobjoy-Sherriff, who did a terrific job capturing the story’s imagery,” Alastair said.
“I am extremely proud of the book and I am excited for it to be out in the public for people to read and learn about our environment.”
