Ten Tiny Tadpoles is a rhyming counting book which also introduces babies and younger children to the concept of tadpoles turning into frogs. We read the book after a walk to the pond to look for frogspawn, it’s a great book to read in the spring.
The Story: Ten Tiny Tadpoles on the first page decrease one by one as they join other friends in the stream leaving one lonely tadpole at the end. The final pop up spread shows ten baby frogs.
Ten Tiny Tadpoles is a good size for little hands and has sturdy pages (although the pages are not as thick as a board book). With it’s wonderful froggy pop up on the final spread it’s a great book for babies – however, due to enthusiastic toddler reading some of our frogs are a little torn! The ten plastic tadpoles peer through little holes and are lovely and smooth for little fingers to feel. They disappear one by one which gives lots of opportunities for counting backwards and practising subtraction, I also used them with my daughter to introduce and consolidate colour recognition. Ten Tiny Tadpoles is also a great stimulus for talking about tadpoles turning into frogs and introduces other pond inhabitants, e.g dragonflies, newts and water snails.
The simple rhyming text is very familiar to us after repetitive reading! Each double page spread is beautifully illustrated with big, colourful characters who all have friendly smiles and provide more opportunities for counting and colour recognition.
This is a great first book for young children, especially relevant for this time of year.
Age Range: 1 +
Author / Illustrator: Debbie Tarbett
Ten wriggly wiggly caterpillars was also another of my daughter’s favourites when she was younger. Can you guess what was on the final double spread in this story?
Very cool concept…math and biology combined in one package.
It’s a great combination and I love how it’s done so simply for the littlest people 🙂
I love that this is a book for 1 to 4 year olds. I have a fascination with frogs and find that many young children do too. Great book for next time we are exploring our frog theme. Thanks from a fellow kids book a week member.
You’re welcome Lesley. Thanks for visiting Story Snug 🙂
This sounds like a wonderful book to share with young children at this time of year. I love Spring and all the changes and excitement it brings. It also sounds like a great story for reinforcing or introducing number skills. Thank you for joining in with #kidsbookaweek
You’re welcome Kirsty. My daughter loves collecting frogspawn with our neighbour and watching the tadpoles change and grow.
I love this concept, we had a similar books but it was using ladybirds. thanks for linking with #ReadWithMe I have pinned and tweeted this post. x
There are several in the series. Ten Chirpy Chicks would be a great book for Easter. Thanks for sharing the post 🙂
That sounds like such a fun book! #ReadWithMe x
It’s lovely for little ones. Thank you for visiting Story Snug 🙂
Sounds so fun! #ReadWithMe x
It is 🙂 Thank you for visiting Story Snug.