Overview
Tails are irresistible to toddlers, and in Matthew Van Fleet’s sturdy touch-and-feel board book, preschool-age pokers and prodders can finally tug to their heart’s content. Engaging, cartoonish animals from tigers to pangolins romp across the pages as the rhyming text bounces along: “Tails fluffy, / Tails stringy, / Scaled tails strong and—clingy!” Pull tabs, lift-able flaps, tufts of fur, and even a scratch-and-sniff skunk tail provide plenty of tactile surprises. Along the way, youngsters will learn about counting, opposites, and how animals use their tails. A tried and true tail-wagger!
Rhyming text, textured illustrations, lift-up flaps, and scratch-and-sniff spots teach about animal names, shapes, colors, and numbers, one to ten.
Synopsis
From popular and bestselling author Matthew Van Fleet comes an interactive book like no other!
Publishers Weekly
Spotted through a die-cut window forming the letters of this book's title, the furry tails of a tiger and bush baby and the bumpy tails of an alligator and a pangolin number among the seven textures little fingers can touch in this lively look at animal appendages. Sturdy pages feature friendly, frisky creatures interacting-and flaps and tabs encourage youngsters to do the same. A pull of a tab makes two young foxes' tails wag; a lift of a flap reveals the shimmering, Mylar-enhanced fanned-out feathers of one deservedly proud peacock, owner of the volume's most dazzling tail. Other child-pleasing pages include a pull-tab showing two tiny alligators hatching from eggs, displaying their "tails new"; and a pair of pages that open to reveal a whale of a tail, in fact "The biggest tail of all!" The entire cast poses atop the smiling mammal with their species labeled. A final spread offers a counting game, challenging readers to search the pages for two tigers, three foxes, four pandas, etc. Youngsters will hardly realize how much they're learning in this entertaining and eye-catching caper. Ages 2-5. (Oct.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
From the creator of the popular Fuzzy Yellow Ducklings comes this adorable interactive book about different kinds of animal tails! With soft textures for young readers to feel, flaps to open, pull-tabs, and other tail-oriented elements, Matthew Van Fleet delivers a funny, eye-catching read featuring his comical artwork. Smily-faced tigers play with shimmery-plumed peacocks on one spread, while readers can move frisky foxes' tails with a pull of the tab. "Tails long, Tails stumpy, Pulling tails makes snoozers -- grumpy!" shows panda bears frolicking in trees with silly monkeys, and "Tails cool, Tails hot, Tails swishing -- swat, swat, swat!" has a bunch of peppy pigs swishing away flies and lazing in a pond. And with a smelly scratch and sniff skunk's tail, a dazzling fold-out spread of all the animals (plus a blue whale), and a final spread of ten animals that van Fleet challenges readers to go back and find, this interactive read is sure to get kids wagging their tongues for Tails!Parenting Magazine
"A waggish survey of the animal world's very own happy endings."Publishers Weekly
Spotted through a die-cut window forming the letters of this book's title, the furry tails of a tiger and bush baby and the bumpy tails of an alligator and a pangolin number among the seven textures little fingers can touch in this lively look at animal appendages. Sturdy pages feature friendly, frisky creatures interacting-and flaps and tabs encourage youngsters to do the same. A pull of a tab makes two young foxes' tails wag; a lift of a flap reveals the shimmering, Mylar-enhanced fanned-out feathers of one deservedly proud peacock, owner of the volume's most dazzling tail. Other child-pleasing pages include a pull-tab showing two tiny alligators hatching from eggs, displaying their "tails new"; and a pair of pages that open to reveal a whale of a tail, in fact "The biggest tail of all!" The entire cast poses atop the smiling mammal with their species labeled. A final spread offers a counting game, challenging readers to search the pages for two tigers, three foxes, four pandas, etc. Youngsters will hardly realize how much they're learning in this entertaining and eye-catching caper. Ages 2-5. (Oct.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.Children's Literature
In a most creative book, readers are introduced to a variety of tails. Fuzzy striped tiger tails, rough scratchy tails, leathery, scaly and even feathered tails. The die cut opening on the cover exposes a few of the tails featured on the inside. The opening spread includes a large flap which, when opened, shows off a peacocks tail in its entire splendor. Some tails we learn stand up, others drag on the ground and for those that wag there is a pull-tab to make them move from left to right. Some tails swish to chase away flies others can be smelly like that of a skunk (there is a scratch and sniff spot). The final spread shows the animals with their names and a number. Throughout the book there is a variety of animal tails and opportunities for interaction through tabs, and flaps. Kids can count, learn some animal facts and just have a laugh as they marvel over the diversity that nature provides. 2003, Red Wagon Books/Harcourt, Ages 2 to 5.— Marilyn Courtot