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TAILS CHASING TAILS by Matthew Porter

TAILS CHASING TAILS

by Matthew Porter ; illustrated by Matthew Porter

Pub Date: April 9th, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-57061-852-9
Publisher: Sasquatch

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)