The Tale Of Tricky Fox
The clever collaborators behind The Gingerbread Man and Aunt Pitty Patty's Piggy offer another buoyant retelling in this tale within a tale. A teacher from yesteryear gathers her students around her to read to them a book--which keen-eyed kids will recognize as the book in their own hands. It introduces Tricky Fox who brags to his brother that "I'm going to get me a fat pig!" Insisting that a fox could not possible carry such a critter, Brother Fox replies, "I'll eat my hat if you do!" The title character grows positively--and contagiously--gleeful as he tricks one and then another woman, so that it seems he just may accomplish his mission. Yet the next would-be victim of his pranks is a teacher (in fact, the very one seen on the opening page), and "Tricky Fox didn't know that teachers are not so easy to fool as regular humans are." Rendered in watercolor, black ink and gouache, McClintock's endearingly antique pictures add to the merriment, especially when the conniving fox winks at readers, drawing them into his joke. Cleverly paced repetition and an unexpected ending make this droll caper a winning choice. Ages 3-6.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.