by Betsy James
First published 1999
Molly has little patience for her baby brother Davey. Her tadpoles are far more interesting. She watches them swim in their container, fascinated by their tiny forms. Davey just cries and takes up everyone's attention. But as the months pass, something unexpected happens. Davey begins to change. He starts to smile, then sit up, then crawl around the house. Meanwhile, Molly's tadpoles undergo their own remarkable transformation, sprouting legs and losing their tails as they become frogs. Molly finds herself drawn into parallel observations of growth and development. She begins to see similarities between Davey's milestones and the metamorphosis happening in her aquarium. What started as sibling rivalry becomes something deeper as Molly discovers that watching her brother grow can be just as amazing as watching her tadpoles transform.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, family-life
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, parallel-narratives
32 pages · Hardcover · Dutton Juvenile