Tad is one of our favourite picture books to send out. It does something most books for three-year-olds do not, which is put real jeopardy on the page.
The plot is plain. Tad is a tadpole. She is the last of her siblings still in the pond. Somewhere in the water there is a shadow called Big Blub that eats tadpoles, and Tad needs to become a frog before Big Blub gets her.
Most picture books this size pull their punches. Tad does not. It is a chase with a predator the reader can actually fear, and the tension runs from cover to final spread.
Benji Davies trained in animation before picture books. You can see it in the way Tad moves across the page, shot to shot, like storyboarded film. The book has a pacing that does not come from the text; it comes from the layout.
We send Tad into Reception class sets where the teacher has hinted that the class has read too many safely cuddly books. It stands out.
Davies also wrote The Storm Whale, which is probably on your child’s shelf already. Tad deserves to be there too.