Tadpoles

PreS-Gr 3–This meandering story is about a child who enjoys exploring. There is an empty field by the child’s home, and although a girl at school tells the child that the field is poisonous, the child’s dad says it’s just a field. The child has noticed lots of things that people have left there, like empty bottles and even an old piano. When it rains, puddles form, and if it rains enough, it turns into an ephemeral pond, with tadpoles, which the child likes to observe. The misty acrylic, gouache, and ink illustrations give the scenes a wavy feel, as if readers are peering through layers of water to spy tadpoles and other living things beneath the surface. There is a reference to the father’s leaving home and the child’s subsequent grief, and then the narrative veers back to a scattered but poetic glimpse of tadpoles and how they grow. The inclusion of solid nonfiction information helps ground readers as does some light back matter.