Tad (Read Aloud by Dawn O’Porter)
-
- USD 19.99
-
- USD 19.99
Descripción editorial
Sometimes the biggest stories come from the smallest beginnings…
Winner of the 2020 Oscar’s Book Prize!
Meet Tad.
She’s the smallest tadpole in a big pond, and lives there with all her tadbrothers and tadsisters.
Although something else lives there too… BIG BLUB! And when everyone else starts to disappear, Tad starts to wonder if Big Blub will get her too…
Or is everyone else going somewhere else; somewhere better? And if so, will Tad ever get there too?
A big story about a tiny tadpole – about growing up, branching out, and taking a leap into life.
Winner of the 2020 Oscar’s Book Prize and from the award-winning creator of The Storm Whale and Granddad’s Island, Tad is the perfect story for everyone who’s ever grown up, or still has a way to go…
“Saturated with colour and steeped in the fear and excitement of growing up.” The Guardian, Best New Picture Books roundup
“An author-illustrator destined to be one of this generation’s great talents” Huffington Post
Reviews
Praise for Tad
“Saturated with colour and steeped in the fear and excitement of growing up.” The Guardian, Best New Picture Books roundup
Praise for Benji Davies
“Benji Davies (The Storm Whale and Grandad’s Island) is fast establishing himself as a leading light in children’s picture books” – Huffington Post
“An author-illustrator destined to be one of this generation’s great talents” – Huffington Post
Praise for THE STORM WHALE
“Like the best picture books, “The Storm Whale” has an outsize emotional force that often comes from what the author-illustrator Benji Davies leaves out” – New York Times
Praise for THE STORM WHALE IN WINTER
“Intensely atmospheric, full of biting cold, tender detail and warm light, this is a book to cuddle up with” – The Guardian
Praise for GRANDAD’S ISLAND
“A gently magical story about bidding farewell to a grandparent, Davies’ vibrant palette infuses the story with a hopeful spirit” – Huffington Post
“Benji Davies didn’t invent the melancholy sea story, but he sure knows how to deliver one…’Grandad’s Island’ metaphorically and movingly re-imagines the experience of loss” – Boston Globe
About the author
Benji Davies was born and raised in Peterborough. After studying animation at university he spread his creative wings, working on a variety of illustration and animation projects. His picture books have won numerous awards – the Oscar’s Book Prize in both 2014 and 2020, an AOI World Illustration Prize and the Sainsbury’s Children’s Book Prize. He lives and works in London with his wife.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This smartly constructed story follows a school of tadpoles as they grow and change all except the smallest, Tad. The tadpoles' nemesis is an ancient fish named Big Blub ("He was as old as the mud, they said"), who is partial to eating tadpoles. Underwater effects and a blue-green palette evoke murky liquidity as the tadpoles, with big, inquisitive eyes, achieve frogdom one by one: "We've lost our tails, we've lost our tails!" they cry. The tension mounts as Tad notices her companions leaving ("Where had they all gone? She didn't like to think"). Finally, Tad finds herself alone in the pond, and an inky double-page spread shows her cowering behind rocks as bubbles from below signal a hungry fish; she escapes in the nick of time. With firm command of his artwork and his pacing, Davies weds keen suspense to the slow, difficult process of waiting for milestones. By hitching that dilemma to the energy of an enemy-prey drama, he makes Tad's frustration and delight at discovering where the others have gone all the more vivid. Ages 4 8.
