Fox the Tiger - a review

Fox the Tiger
By Corey R. Tabor
Harper Collins, 2018

Below is my review of Fox the Tiger as it appeared in School Library Journal.

PreS-Gr 1--Fox yearns to be a tiger. "Tigers are big. Tigers are fast ... Tigers are the best." Fox and his friends, Turtle and Rabbit, spend the day pretending until a rainstorm washes away their disguises. Tabor uses pencil, watercolor, and crayon in a bright, but earthy palette. Most pages have a single illustration which provides context for one or two sentences. After Fox paints himself to look like a tiger, he admires his new stripes in a full-length mirror, can of paint nearby: "There. Now I am a tiger," says Tiger." The three friends have simple, but expressive cartoon features that add emotion to the story. Limited background details, creamy white pages, and an uncomplicated font are a perfect combination for an emerging reader. A humorous ending provides a positive message of self-acceptance that would have more power if Fox's epiphany came from within, rather than from the affirmation of others. VERDICT This is Fox's first appearance in an easy reader and it will surely be popular with children who enjoyed him in picture book format.

Read a sample of Fox the Tiger here. 


School Library Journal. Aug2018, p63.
Copyright © 2018 School Library Journal, the property of Media Source, Inc.  Reprinted here with permission.


My copy of Fox the Tiger was provided by School Library Journal.

Can We Save the Tiger? a review

Here’s another review of a  Cybils Nonfiction Picture Book finalist …


Jenkins, Martin. 2011. Can We Save the Tiger? Ill. By Vicky White. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

Martin Jenkins explains extinction and its causes in a manner that, while factual, is also conversational and thought provoking.  Consider his opening paragraphs that inspire an immediate sense of wonder combined with an easy familiarity,

The world’s quite a big place, you know.  But it’s not that big, when you consider how much there is to squeeze into it.
After all, it’s home not just to billions of people, but to the most amazing number of other kinds of living things, too.  And we’re all jostling for space.

After a cursory introduction to extinction, he offers the varying reasons for why creatures have become extinct – poaching, invasive non-native species, over-hunting, chemical poisoning.  Each time, he hints that problems are not so easily solved.  Take the tiger for example,

…they’re big, they need a lot of space.  But the countries where they live, like India and Indonesia, have huge numbers of people in them too, all trying to make a living and needing to be fed. …
So if you were a poor farmer trying to make a living with a couple of cows and a few goats, you might not be too happy if you found there was a hungry tiger living nearby.  And if you knew that someone might pay you more for a tiger skin and some bones than you earn in three whole months working in the fields, then you might find it very tempting to set a trap or two, even if you knew it was against the law.

Jenkins looks at failures (the Dodo, the Great Auk and others), successes (the Buffalo, the White Rhinoceros, the Kakapos, and more) and other works in progress.  In each case, he presents the conundrum of competing interests or unintended consequences in a manner easily understood by young readers.  Text size, too, is inviting to younger readers – smaller text is punctuated by sections of very large font print.

Similarly to Jim Arnosky’s Thunder Birds, field-style pencil sketches accompany many pages.  Vicky White’s larger illustrations are done in pencil and oil paint with lightly sketched backgrounds, or on plain cream-colored pages. The large and realistic illustrations are accompanied by basic facts including habitat, size, diet, life span, and existing population. An index and online resources complete the book.

A small final illustration of the rare Sander’s Slipper Orchid hints that not only creatures are in danger of extinction; or perhaps the illustration hints at a future book. The over sized book has sturdy pages that, although they have a matte finish, have a smooth and creamy texture - like icing on the cake.  A beautiful and affecting book.

Can We Save the Tiger? is a 2011 Cybils finalist in the Nonfiction Picture Book category.

Nonfiction Monday is at Lori Calabrese Writes! today.