Tadpole's Promise

Author: Jeanne Willis

Illustrator: Tony Ross

Age: KS1/KS2

Despite my knowledge about caterpillars and tadpoles, I was shocked when the frog ate the butterfly, as I was captivated by the narrative and wonderful illustrations. It had a lovely romance/friendship element throughout and I fully enjoyed the story.

This book is slightly unusual as it is a portrait layout, to make the illustrations more realistic (show the land and underwater). I felt this gave the book a unique quality, adding to its like-ability.

I would certainly recommend this book and I think it could possibly be extended for KS2, as it clearly relates to science (e.g. could extend from this and look at adaptations).

During a lesson children could focus on several aspects from the book, such as dialogue (this could incorporate drama into the lesson and the children could develop skills with speech marks). Also, children could focus on a particular theme in the book, such as: growth, food chains, life cycles, promises or change. For example: change is a part of life, so it would be a good idea to promote change and growth, exploring the benefits and relating it to the children's lives, because usually people tend to fear change as they grow older. Another idea could be to stop the story half way to make predictions, either through discussion (spoken language skills) or written work.

"She was his beautiful rainbow and he was her shiny black pearl"