Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Tadpole's Promise

Tadpole's Promise, written by Jeanne Willis and illustrated by Tony Ross, is a picture book.

The Plot: Tadpole and Caterpillar meet, fall in love, and promise each other to never change. But, alas, time moves forward and there are some promises that cannot be kept.

The Good: I don't want to spoil anything about this remarkable book, but I do plan on adding a comment later about the ending so if you don't want to be spoiled, don't read the comments. At first, T'sP appears to be a simple tale of love and friendship, but there are deeper issues beneath the surface: love, forgiveness, change, growth, understanding, denial.

I liked how the picture book was designed. Instead of the traditional way, the book is "sideways" with the left hand side the "top" and the right hand side the "bottom," with the top being the Caterpillar's world of air and the right being the Tadpole's world of water.

The illustrations are fun, and include details that add to the story.

I liked this book so much that I will be buying it for Beloved Niece (age 5) and Beloved Nephew (age 2). And since it was published this year, it is also going on my Best Books of 2005 list. Finally, I think this book can work with all ages: I'm sharing it with some teens at the library tonight, so I'll include their responses in my comments section.

4 comments:

Liz B said...

Update: the TAB teens were split between saying "that's horrible" and "I love it." They checked out all copies (and my book buying budget is at zero) so I will have to wait to see if my Goosebumps loving niece, whose favorite pop up book is by Stephen King, likes this one. We did discuss what age group to use this book with and agreed that 3rd grade up would be best.

Terry said...

4 years later I have come accross this book at the library. I´m now in love with this story, I´m working on it, and this post has been very suggesting. Thank you!

Jeremy said...

A cautionary tale of love. Powerful enough to evoke an emotional response from most adults as well as children.

Anonymous said...

"A brilliant read! This simple tale captures the meaning and mystery of of life at the fundamental level".

Cindi