"Seven wary tadpoles
learn to hide.
Six little tadpoles
peek above the pool."
They begin as 10 tadpoles growing inside their eggs. Only nine wiggle free. Careful observers will note that one has no eye - no life - before the others hatch. They will also note a predator, eying the group as they wiggle about to set themselves free from the leaf they are living on.
Eight plunge from the leaf into the water below them. One hits the water too hard and falls close to a wolf chiclid fish swimming past. Younger children might be a touch upset as the tadpoles dwindle in number with each turn of the page. As they become fodder for the creatures that inhabit the Costa Rican ecosystem, readers are made fully aware of the watery environment and the chance of survival for tiny tadpoles within such a place.
The scientific names of each predator accompanies their appearance on successive pages. Each is doing what it does best. It feeds when the opportunity presents itself, as happens in an ecosystem. The illustrations are engaging and fully detailed to help with the learning as the numbers count down to no tadpoles, and only one tiny treefrog surviving from the original clutch of eggs.
Back matter is extensive, and very helpful for readers wanting to know more about the red-eyed treefrog that stars in this exceptional book.
"Red-eyed treefrogs do not care for their young, so laying
many eggs is a survival strategy. The more eggs a mother
frog lays, the greater the chances that one will beat the odds
to grow into a treefrog."
Alongside informative paragraphs is a list of the Costa Rican species that appeared in the book, faced with a clear image that places each (and a numbered thumbnail sketch) in the rainforest environment. Following that, the author discusses what it takes for one tiny treefrog to survive, in simple facts numbered from ten down to one. An illustrated life cycle, a selected bibliography, and suggestions for further research are included.
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