Sonderbooks Book Review of 999 Tadpoles

999 Tadpoles

by Ken Kimura
illustrated by Yasunari Murakami

Review posted November 4, 2011.
NorthSouth, New York, 2011. First published in Japan in 2003. 44 pages.

I confess, I checked out this book because I thought it was a children's book about numbers. It turned out to be a fun book about a whole bunch of baby frogs.

After 999 tadpoles were born in a little pond, a situation developed:

The 999 tadpoles grew and grew and grew, until one day they grew into frogs. Now the pond was too small for them.
"We can't move!" one called.
"We can't breathe!" called another.
"Don't push!" called a third.
"We have a situation here," said Father.
"We'll have to move," said Mother.

How Mother Frog and Father Frog get all their babies to another, bigger pond is a surprising and funny story. I love the matter-of-fact tone and the striking, simple pictures. I plan to use this book in a storytime soon.