BUYING ADVISORY: Pre-K, EL (K-3) - ADVISABLE
AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH
Ten tiny tadpoles grow in their eggs. Nine tadpoles wiggle free and fall into the river. Seven tadpoles learn to hide for there is a dragonfly nymph nearby. Six tadpoles learn to kick and five make it to the surface. Four growing tadpoles come to the surface for air with more predatory fish around. Three tadpoles make it to the surface and one gets eaten by a bird. Two tadpoles prepare to leave the water with a young alligator watching them below. Only one actually makes it to the surface and sees a safe tree, but an alligator is coming.
One Tiny Treefrog on the surface seems like a sweet simple counting book about the life of tree frogs set in Costa Rica's lush jungle with easy text for young children to read. With closer examination it becomes a countdown to survival and contains many layers of understanding. Piedra is clever with text and illustrations revealing how hard it is for a treefrog baby to succeed to adulthood. Young children may not grasp the dangers unless it is explained to them for the text does not reveal it. I like the fact pages at the end that teach us more in depth about a red-eyed treefrog's circle of life and also mentions the other Costa Rica creatures in the illustrations.
Although the book does not describe any violence or even mention what has happened, one baby tree frog is missing on each page and we assume through the illustrations what probably happened.
PGPowers
No comments:
Post a Comment