After the brilliant No Ballet Shoes For Syria and Bird Boy, Catherine Bruton returns with a truly powerful and moving story- Tadpole Summer.

This is the story of Frog ( Frances) and her brother Tad; Tad suffers from an illness- SMA Spinal Muscular Atrophy - slowly his muscles are wasting away and the body cannot function.

Set against the backdrop of a spring into summer, this is the tale as to how nature provided a point of focus during a challenging and heartbreaking summer for Frog and her family. Each Spring, Frog has gone tad poling with her brother but this year he is bed ridden- so she embarks on building a small osiers of calm with a wildlife garden and along with the help of her grandad s she is able to create her own refuge when at times she feels isolated form the events around her. She befriends her neighbour Ari who is homeschooled and views life in his own unique way bringing along an extra magic to the story.The journey /life of the tadpoles plays against the ensuing events and makes a beautiful analogy about change and life cycles.

With grandad's support she starts to camp out in the garden and in a short time this simple action becomes something that involves a community and school whilst all the time ensuring that Tad has a magical time.

This is a book about grief- preparing for death - but it is incredibly sensitive and moving. As Catherine Bruton explains , one in 20 children deal with the bereavement of a close relative so it is not alien to children.

This is a book that I will recommend to colleagues in upper key stage 2 and family and friends- this could also be read by adults. I did not know about SMA and this book has educated me as well as deeply moving me. A difficult theme is so sensitively explored that to by pass this story because of its content would be very sad.

I doubt I will read a primary school read as powerful as this in the foreseeable future. Yes, it truly moved me to tears.

Thank you Catherine Bruton for a masterclass in storytelling but a book that has an enduring power in educating and supporting children and adults during a life changing period. A top highlight children's book for 2026 - no doubt

Thank you to Nosy Crow books and Netgalley for the advance copy

'Tadople Summer' is a beautiful middle-grade novel about childhood illness, grief and nature. We follow the perspective of 11-year-old Frances (known to everyone as Frog) whose younger prother Taddeus (Tad) is unwell with Spinal Muscular Atrophe, known as SMA-MPE for short. Frog is devoted to Tad - they share a bedroom and she is the last person he sees each night and the first person he sees every morning. She has been aware of Tad's illness for several years but it hasn't stopped them enjoying nature with their grandad, collecting tadpoles in jampots and watching them grow into frogs. But now Tad is much more seriously ill in hospital, and nobody is sure if or when he will be coming home. Over the course of one magical summer, Frog does her best to stay strong for her brother, but there are times when it all feels like too much.

Catherine Bruton writes with such empathy and sensitivity about these very difficult topics. Every member of the family is convincingly portrayed. Childhood chronic illness can be difficult to write about as it is easy to sentimentalise children who are ill, turning them into Tiny Tim or Helen Burns figures. In common with those characters, Tad does display a wisdom and patience beyond his years but I found him believable overall, and there are moments where Bruton allows him to express his fears and his sadness. The grown-ups - Mum, Dad and Grandad - feel very real: doing their best to care for both of their children even though Tad consumes so much of their thoughts, struggling financially but trying to put on a brave face. But above all this is Frog's story, and I was very moved by her character - someone who tries to make herself as small as possible to support her brother, who doesn't always know what is going on and doesn't know how to face up to the possibility of losing her beloved brother. There is a conversation between Frog and her similarly taciturn father that had me bawling (almost as much as Connor's final conversation with his mother in Patrick Ness's 'A Monster Calls' - high praise indeed!) Bruton adds in another character - Frog's eccentric new neighbour, Archimedes, who is home-schooled for reasons that only gradually become apparent, but whose perspective also enriches the exploration of Frog's developing emotions.

This powerful story of loss and grief is set alongside the most beautiful writing about nature. The novel is prefaced with a passage from 'Death of a Naturalist' by Seamus Heaney (who also gives Frog her middle name), one of the great poems about loss of childhood innocence. The changing of the seasons from spring into summer provides a powerful backdrop to Tad's illness, at times offering hope as nature springs into life but also reminding us of the ephemerality of all life: Frog and Grandad know that not all the tadpoles will turn into frogs, and this understanding is part of what helps this novel to be moving without becoming cloying or sentimental.

An afterword by Bruton underlines the importance of this book - both in raising awareness of SMA-MPE, but more generally of talking and writing openly about death and grief for young readers. As Bruton notes, 1 in 20 people experience the death of a parent or sibling before the age of 16. This very special book is one that can help them, and all of us, make sense of how to deal with such a shattering loss. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC to review.