Book 1Guy the Tadpole Meets Elke

Tadpoles are small frogs. They look like fish in the beginning. A tadpole is hatched from an egg, like my frog Guy. Guy was nothing but a little bit the first day that I met him. He began his life in the Bayou that we call Rocky Bayou. There underneath the dock with the murky water covering him his mother laid her eggs. When spring came, the tadpoles began hatching. Guy was a late bloomer he was born right in the beginning of summer when the sun burns hottest on the bayou.

He swam around eating what he could, trying not to be eaten by another creture. Fish and birds love to eat tadpoles, so that’s a good thing that Guy lived under the wooden dock otherwise how else would he have been given to me. My mommy and I were tak-ing a walk that day, back from Lincoln park in our hometown of Valparaiso Florida. I love the park, I love playing in the sun, and sliding down the slides. I love meeting new kids and trying to go as high as I can on the swings. Don’t you?

My friends Timmy and Jimmy live right down the street from the park. The day I met Guy, my mommy and I were walking home. We saw Jimmy and Timmy, they had a large bucket filled with freshwater from the bayou. There in the water were ten tadpoles swimming around, wondering why they were in a bucket. I couldn’t even imagine that they would grow to be frogs! I thought that they were little fish. Jimmy and Timmy spent all morning down by the docks, catching the tapoles with cups and placing them in the bucket. They were so happy that they had caught ten. And guess what? They were giv-ing them away. Yes, they asked me if I wanted one and I looked at mommy wiht a big grin. She knew that I wanted nothing more than to take one home. But, what I didn’t know was that Guy was going to grow up faster than me.

Timmy smiled back at me, reached down into the tub and pulled one out. He placed it in a cup and filled it with some water. Then he handed it to me. It was hot that day, and I was sure that the fish would boil. But they didn’t mommy had to keep reminding me that Guy wasn’t a fish he was a tadpole. Timmy was going to give one of the tadpoles to each kid in the neighborhood. Which would be great, we could have all kinds of fun with them.

Tadpoles are green, and slick. Some people might say that they are a little bit slimey, but they aren’t they are just smooth from being in the water. I wanted to play with Guy, but I decided not too. He was already scared as it was and I didn’t want to scare him more. Mommy and I walked home, and I carried the tadpole carefully all the way back. I wanted to know more about him, where his mommy was, his brothers and sisters and why he was left alone? It was a good thing that he was left alone or he wouldn’t have been caught in Timmy’s cup and then given to me.

I watched him swimming as we walked, the cup sloshed a little here and there but I was very careful to make sure that the water did not leak out of the cup. When we got home I decided that Guy would have lunch with me. But, I didn’t know what to feed him. Tad-

poles are very hungry little creatures, beacue they are growing so fast each day. They require little attention, that’s why there mothers leave them to hatch on their own. They also grpw really fast.