Frog's spinach affair inspires senior

A little frog trapped in a bag of spinach inspired a semi-retired East Glacier resident to write his first children's book.

A little frog trapped in a bag of spinach inspired a semi-retired East Glacier resident to write his first children's book.

Ret. Lt. Col. Jack Crandall, 69, said the story originated when he was taking an online creative writing class.

"What happened is we got a homework assignment to find a newspaper article and write a story about it," he said.

Looking for inspiration, Crandall found it in a March 30, 2004, article by Nancy Kimball in the Daily Inter Lake. It detailed how a Kalispell teacher had found a live frog in a bag of spinach.

The teacher, Laurie Kollmann, noticed "a dark blob" in her hand as she pulled out some spinach to make a salad for lunch. After recovering from the shock, she decided to take the frog to her students at St. Matthew's School for a classroom pet.

Kollmann's third-grade students named their frog Popeye, based on the cartoon character's affinity for spinach.

Until he read about Popeye, Crandall hadn't considered writing a children's book for the assignment. But the story captured his imagination and launched "Popeye: The Little Tree Frog's BIG Adventure."

Crandall said he got started by trying to capture how the ordeal unfolded from the frog's perspective.

"I just kind of thought like a kid," he said.

As a father and grandfather, Crandall found that youngsters have no problem imaging a frog that talks. But he said a lot of people have trouble imagining him as a children's author.

A West Point graduate, Crandall spent 21 years in the military. Although he retired in 1979, he has continued on as a government contractor, providing leadership training exercises for the Army.

Although several years past 65, he has no intention of slowing down. Crandall will leave soon for a training exercise in Alaska.

"I love being out with the soldiers," he said. "As long as I'm healthy, I'm going to do that."

He also intends to keep producing stories. From a young age, Crandall has always had an interest in writing.

"As a kid in school, I wrote poetry a lot," he said.

Crandall said he also has always loved to read, particularly mystery writers Nelson DeMille and Jonathan Kellerman. He thought he would end up writing an action/adventure type of book.

"Instead I ended up as a poor man's Dr. Seuss," he said with a laugh.

Crandall said he wrote the first draft quickly. But he spent a lot more time polishing the final version.

Publisher Scott Graber put him in touch with artist Bob Cavanaugh of Kalispell, who drew all the illustrations in the book. Although the two never met, Crandall said that Cavanaugh did an excellent job interpreting the story.

"The pictures were all good and we used every one of them," he said.

Crandall designed the book to serve as both entertainment and a learning experience for children. He included scientific information about Pacific treefrogs at the end of the story.

He also provides a page for children to use their own imaginations to write about Popeye's next adventure. Crandall has a few more Popeye books of his own in mind if his first sells well.

"The book lends itself to sequels," he said. "Popeye's summer vacation or Popeye goes back to school."

People interested in buying the book may find it at Bookworks, Bad Rock Books, the Imagination Station stores in Kalispell and Whitefish and the book store at Glacier Park International Airport. It carries a recommended retail price of $7.95.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com