In this circular tale (or tail?), readers are encouraged to guess which animal is being chased off the page.
The top half of the chaser is depicted on the left-hand page, and the right-hand side shows the tail and bottom half of the critter being chased. On the verso, the pursuer becomes the pursued. An elephant follows a tiger, a tiger dashes after a bear, and a bear hunts a pig, until readers get to the mouse, who is chasing the elephant from the beginning. The final double-page spread reviews the chase sequence with smaller images of each creature. Porter’s acrylic paintings on wood of wide-eyed animals have a delightful folk-art look and feel and offer readers strong visual clues as to who is being chased. The text follows a simple pattern, but it includes some great vocabulary-building descriptions of each tail for would-be guessers. Let’s hope the title, which is close to a racy slang term, does not get in the way of adults sharing it with their little ones.
A delightful and playful romp worthy of an enthusiastic following.
(Board book. 1-3)