Kids are weird. Having said that, I’m weird and so are you. There is something about all of us-at one point or another, that we thought we were different, uncool, strange or utterly alien. The difference is that kids are brand new to being different and find it tougher to deal with. A Tiger Tail, (or what happened to Anya on her first day of school) by Mike Boldt is the story of a girl’s first day of First grade and her strange new appendage.
The night before her first day of school she grows a tail. It’s a long red and black tail that nicely compliments her red hair, but she doesn’t like it and knows that every other kid in school will most certainly not have a tail. Her books did not have pictures of little girls with tails. Anya’s mother tries to comfort her by saying that it brings out her wild side and dad mentions that he wears glasses, but she is not buying any of it.
Anya tries to pull it off, wear far too many clothes (like Joey in Friends!) to hide it and even misses the bus in hopes of not being around kids her age. All of this proves unsuccessful and once on school grounds she crashes into a boy wearing a hat. That hat was covering up some very large rabbit ears. She meets her new friend, Ben and proceeds to go to her class where she sees other kids with big ears, glasses or other things that they feel like is akin to her tail.
In other words, they’re normal happy kids, all of whom have something that they feel makes them stick out like a sore thumb.
A Tiger Tail is a fun book for ages 4-8. Our kids are 4 and 6 and the book gives them both something to laugh at, learn from and want to read again. The text is on par with something that the average 6 year old should be able to mostly read. There are a couple of words that he struggles through-and sometimes he just wants us to read to him, but it’s one that he can read. His younger brother just laughs at the visual gag of a first grader going to school with a tiger tail.
The art in the book is spot-on appropriate for kids. By that I mean it’s detailed without being too cartoonish, yet it still has dreamy elements about it. There are some pages that feature a very large single picture, while others three images that help push along the story.
It’s because of all of this that A Tiger Tail also passes our great good-night book test with flying colors. The story is short enough to be re-read twice or more when you’re putting the kids to sleep and has detailed pictures that the kids can get lost in or laugh at. Bonus: it also teaches them a lesson that they might not be verbalizing to you as the first day of school, or anytime for that matter, approaches.
“Why don’t you have hair?” our youngest asks me sometimes.
“Well, some people have hair and some people don’t.”, I reply.
A Tiger Tail is like that. We’re all different and it’s OK to be a little scared or unsure of what to expect when school starts. If our son’s first day of first grade is anything like A Tiger Tail, then he’ll be alright.
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