Growing Fig…

Lady and the Fig

Written by Joseph Phillips · Illustrated by Branislav Sosic

A little ladybug, a big fiddle-leaf fig, and a friendship that lasts through every season.

Read or listen

The Story

Fig can’t move. Fig can’t cry. Lucky for Fig, Lady can.

Fig is a fiddle-leaf fig who loves nothing more than soaking up the sun. Lady is a bright red ladybug with black spots, and she loves Fig lots.

Summer, autumn, winter and spring, a hungry pest comes to nibble Fig’s leaves: a leafhopper, a mealybug, a scale bug and a spider mite. Each time, Lady flies in to save the day: “Do not eat this fig, this fig is my friend!”

It’s a read-aloud story about friendship, standing up for someone who can’t stand up for themselves, and the helpful insects that look after our houseplants.

Meet the Characters

Who lives on Fig

Read or Listen

The whole story, page by page

Read it aloud yourself, or press play on any page to hear it narrated.

    About the Author

    Joseph Phillips

    Joseph Phillips wrote Lady and the Fig “for all lovers of house plants, old and young.” It is a charming, educational story about a ladybug named Lady and a fig tree named Fig. The book is illustrated by Branislav Sosic and dedicated to Bella, Joseph’s dog.

    Joseph also designed and created this website, bringing Lady and Fig’s world to life in 3D.

    The cover of Lady and the Fig: a fiddle-leaf fig in a woven pot by a sunny window, with Lady the ladybug peeking in.

    Get the Book

    Bring Lady and Fig home

    A 33-page illustrated paperback, 8.5 × 8.5 inches, full of pictures from beginning to end. A lovely gift for anyone who adores plants.

    Format
    Paperback, 33 pages
    Published
    November 30, 2021
    ISBN-13
    979-8775641023
    Buy on Amazon (opens in a new tab)

    Behind the World

    How the pages became a place

    Designed and created by Joseph Phillips.

    Grown, not modelled

    Fig is grown by code. Each fiddle-shaped leaf has curl, droop and veins that stay sharp even at ladybug size, all built from the book’s paintings.

    Painted light

    Every frame passes through a brush filter, a soft depth-of-field and an illustrator’s colour grade (violet shadows, warm sunlight) so the world reads like the book’s pages.

    Powers of ten

    The dive from room to leaf eases the distance logarithmically, so every step down in scale gets equal time, and the camera’s focus narrows the way a macro lens does.