23 June 2012 IT’S A TIGER! by David LaRochelle and Jeremy Tankard, ill. Chronicle, July 2012, 36p., ISBN: 978-0-8118-6925-6

“WHOMP!

We made it!

Good thing we landed someplace soft.

A bed of flowers?

A pile of leaves?

A giant orange-and-black pillow?

No, we landed on top of…”

As a guy who reads children’s books as a guy, I have a love for what I’ve always referred to as gross motor books – books for young audiences that depict and/or lend themselves to large movements.  There are limits to the number of stories for which we young guys can just sit still and listen.  After a while, we need a book that gets us up and hopping (and swimming and running and hollering). 

IT’S A TIGER! is this kind of book.

A young guy narrator tells us a story that starts in the jungle.  And when, in the opening pages he says “Wait a minute.  That’s not a monkey.  That looks like…” we look around the page and see…hanging down…the striped tail of… (Turn the page.)

A TIGER!

This is what we need to prep our young audience to holler out loudly, in unison, when we turn the page.  This page-turning strategy is repeated throughout the story.  We see a visually subtle clue and know that it is…

…a whole lot of fun and excitement. 

One of the many things I love about this book is that the story’s large tiger actually has the appearance of being sweet and a bit befuddled by all the drama.  Illustrator Jeremy Tankard’s thickly outlined, deep hued, shiny illustrations contribute to the feeling that this is exciting and adventuresome without being in the least bit scary for very young audiences. 

And then, when our young narrator has finally conquered HIS fear of the tiger, he goes back to the beginning, beginning the story in the jungle – again – and we see a GREEN tail hanging down. 

This time, we turn the page and find…

Richie Partington, MLIS
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