What child doesn’t enjoy a picnic at the pond, wading in and discovering tadpoles, and searching for a paper cup to take home a few swimming memories?

Betsy James perfectly captures not only a child’s summer of learning about the frog lifecycle but also discovering her love and understanding of family.

The story is written from Molly’s point of view. The reader can hear the child’s speech and attitude, and her immaturity in every sentence. Molly has a baby brother. She’s just a tad jealous. She wants to be carried. She wants to be held. She also wants to know more about her tadpoles and how they become frogs.

Molly’s mom and dad help her care for the tadpoles she brings home from a day at the pond. The reader learns about caring for tadpoles. The illustrator does a great job of incorporating pictures of the frog life cycle with illustrations of the story. Along with the illustrator, Molly creates her own drawings of the tadpole growth.

As Molly’s tadpoles grow, so does her little brother Davey. And so does Molly’s love for Davey. She holds him up to show him her tadpoles. She helps him begin to learn to walk. Her mom and dad gently lead her in learning about babies by allowing her to watch the tadpoles grow. Her parents also encourage her knowledge and love of nature.

In the end, Molly must release her tadpoles, now frogs back into the pond. Turning loose of the “babies” she’s raised is hard for her and even harder when Davey’s enthusiasm causes what seems to be a catastrophe. Mom finds a way to turn a catastrophe into joy. Davey, with Molly’s help, has now learned to walk.

I wish I had been that good at parenting. This book will not only help children learn about nature, siblings, and lifecycles but it will help us as parents to understand the stages and reasoning of our littles.

Wishing you a fun-filled adventurous summer. Gail Cartee

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