Tadpoles

by Matt James

Overview

One rainy morning, a father and son bond over a walk through a field full of freshly formed ponds teeming with tadpoles.

In this tender reflection on the fleeting rhythms of the natural world and the enduring love of family, a boy and his father spend a morning exploring an ephemeral pond, a delicate nursery formed by rainfall, perfect for sheltering tadpoles from predators as they grow. The boy’s father doesn’t live with him anymore, and the ponds may only be temporary, but together they make memories that just might last a lifetime. 

With Tadpoles, Boston Globe-Horn Book Award winning author and illustrator Matt James draws from his own memories as a parent and as a child to tell a wistful story that will be instantly recognizable to any families sharing memories of exploring together. For an extra treat, additional material at the back of the book enthusiastically outlines the habitats and life cycles that make up these special amphibian spaces.   

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823455478
Publisher:	Holiday House
Publication date:	05/30/2023
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
File size:	31 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Matt James has won many prestigious awards, including the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award, the New Mexico Book Award, and the Governor General's Award for Illustration. He illustrated When the Moon Comes by Paul Harbridge and The Stone Thrower by Jael Ealey Richardson. His author-illustrator debut, The Funeral, was named a New York Times and New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Book. As a child, Matt liked to trace comics and pretend that tennis racquets were guitars —now he lives in Toronto and behaves more like a grown up.

Editorial Reviews

★ 03/27/2023

This thoughtful stream-of-consciousness outing from James (The Funeral) is voiced by a child who hunts for tadpoles with their father one rainy spring. In the field across from the child’s school, there’s an old silo. “Once,” the narrator remembers, “when my dad first moved to his new place, I stood in the silo and yelled every single swear word that I know.” After sound is shown emanating from the building, the father appears, then kneels and embraces the child. “I guess I was worried that he wouldn’t love me anymore, but my dad says that some things never change.” Now the two, portrayed with pale skin, wade through the pond that’s formed in the field, looking among the tadpoles for froglets (“My dad says that puddles like these are called ephemeral ponds”). Wordless spreads show the protagonist saying farewell to Dad with a small, brave smile, suggesting that the duo’s ebb and flow has grown easier. Multimedia art’s spattered, stroked textures convey the feel of pages left out in a storm in James’s portrait of transition, throughout which the setting and its fluctuating features prove quiet symbols of seasonal and personal transformation, as well as change as a sure thing. Ages 4–8. Agent: Jackie Kaiser, Westwood Creative Arts. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"Vivid, water-spotted illustrations. . . ."— The New York Times
 
★ "An enticingly rich and thoughtful creation. . . . Tadpoles is a reassuring reminder that change can bring positive new developments and that parental love remains constant, even amid great upheaval."—BookPage, Starred Review

★ "[A] thoughtful stream-of-consciousness outing from James. . . . Multimedia art’s spattered, stroked textures convey the feel of pages left out in a storm in James’s portrait of transition, throughout which the setting and its fluctuating features prove quiet symbols of seasonal and personal transformation. . . ."—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

"James’s mixed-media illustrations in gouache, acrylics, and collage show both the factual and emotional parts of the text."—The Horn Book

"A tale of father-child bonding full of visual appeal. . . ."—Kirkus Reviews

"Fun to read either alone or aloud. . . ."—Booklist

From the Publisher

06/23/2023

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. VERDICT A beautiful book about a child observing tadpoles doesn't have enough science information to be nonfiction and is without enough of a narrative arc to make it a compelling story.—Debbie Tanner

School Library Journal

2023-03-14
A child narrates their springtime adventures against the backdrop of a field of old junk across from their school.

It’s easy to get into the head of the child protagonist, as the stream-of-consciousness narration is so perfectly childlike. At the end of a school day during which a girl brags about finding a two-headed frog, the child’s father meets them and walks them home in the rain across the field, talking about clouds and listening to frogs until it’s time to part ways. The child visits the field on their own, exploring the junk that lies about and remembering how they once screamed their anger and fear over their father’s moving out into the old echo-y silo. The spring rains flood the field, forming an ephemeral pond where the child-dad duo catch, examine, and release the tadpoles they find. James’ artwork combines acrylic, ink, gouache, cut paper, and photos. Readers will almost be able to feel the bumps and ridges in the thickly textured illustrations. While the close bond between father and child is quite evident, what’s unclear is what readers should take from this tale that jumps from topic to topic. Dad and the child share light skin and black hair; Dad sports a mustache. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A tale of father-child bonding full of visual appeal but unfocused in its storytelling. (notes about frogs and ephemeral ponds, author’s note, further reading) (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews