One tiny treefrog: A countdown to survival by Tony Piedra and Mackenzie Joy

One of my perennial complaints about fiction, or even so-called nonfiction picture books about animals is that they so often shy away from the realities of the predator-prey cycle. This book faces it down face-first and creates a unique counting adventure that explores the wildlife of an entire ecosystem via the development of a tiny clutch of tadpoles.

The endpapers are patterned with an endless sea of frog eggs and the title page shows rich greens of the jungle framed around the brilliant yellow of the sky with a cell phone tower in the distance and a plane crossing the sky. The story begins on a page of textured and layered greens, where "ten tiny tadpoles grow in their eggs." A soft light shines on the small globules and those wish sharp eyes will spot an adult red-eyed tree frog as well as other creatures moving about in the mist. As each page turns and the tadpoles grow, first dropping into the water, learning to hunt, and eventually returning to land, their number shrinks. They are eaten, usually implied by the presence of a predator, by fish, birds, and other insects. Some fail to develop at various stages, and finally only one remains, "Zero tiny tadpoles. One tiny treefrog." who leaps up onto a leaf as a full-grown frog, just in time to escape the hungry jaws of a caiman.

Joy's art is lush and green, showing the rich underwater world and carefully featuring a small selection of wildlife. However, readers will want to revisit the story again and again, finding new creatures hidden in the green palette and new little secrets hiding in the jungle each time, predicting what will happen and making guesses as to the exact sequence of events. Back matter includes an in-depth exploration of the life-cycle of red-eyed treefrogs, explaining that their average number of eggs (40) was condensed to ten for the story. There's a combined picture that identifies all the species who appear throughout the book and thumbnail portraits with explanations of each stage of the frogs' development and facts about their predators.

Verdict: Joy Cowley's Red-eyed tree frog has long been the go-to picture book for exploring this amphibian's life-cycle and a go-to storytime pick for nonfiction titles, and while this new book can't replace Nic Bishop's stunning photographs, it's a worthy companion with the added dimension of intriguing art, a brisk countdown sequence, and a wider look at the frogs ecosystem and life cycle. Recommended.

ISBN: 9781536219487; Published February 2023 by Candlewick; Review copy provided by publisher