Tabor, Corey R. Fox the Tiger. Balzer Bray, 2018.
Fox the Tiger is written and illustrated by Corey R. Tabor. He is the 2019 Geisel Award winner for this work. The story communicates a positive message that each individual is special. It is targeted for children in grades preschool through grade 1; however, it includes sight words through third grade so it could easily extend beyond that.
The story opens with Fox looking at a book about a tiger, wishing to be one. Tigers are big, fast, and sneaky. Fox paints on black stripes to look like a tiger. He sees his friend, Turtle, who says hello to Fox. Fox corrects Turtle; he is a tiger. Turtle decides to turn himself into a race car. Then, Rabbit turns himself into a robot. All three play prowling, growling, zipping, zooming, beep bop booping until it starts to rain. The rain washes away their costumes. At first, Fox is sad because he’s no longer a tiger. Then, a squirrel sees Fox and excitedly says, “Wow! A fox!” Squirrel thinks foxes are big, fast, and sneaky. Foxes are the best. This makes Fox smile and happy to be a fox.
A majority of the words in the story Fox the Tiger are on the Dolch sight word list. Most of the Dolch words are leveled for pre-kindergarten through first grade. The sentences range from 3 to 8 words. The story begins with Fox wishing to be a tiger. The next spread describes tigers in short sentences: big, fast, and sneaky with images of each. This draws the reader into the story. What will fox do about this?
The spreads in the book depict action for each of the characters: Fox, Turtle, and Rabbit. The reader reads Fox wishes to be a tiger, then paints stripes on himself to look like one. Each animal repeats the process of wanting to be something else, then changing into it. Even the waiting has action as depicted by the snail “moving” from left to right. It’s predictable the last character, Squirrel, would want to be something else, but the surprise is it wants to be a fox. The images help the reader understand the non-sight words and context of the story. For example, the images are realistically and colorfully drawn so the reader sees fox, tiger, turtle, rabbit, race car, robot, and squirrel. Actions words in the text are reflected the drawings (e.g., for prowl the reader sees an image of the character prowling). Abstract words are also drawn (e.g., light bulb over the character’s head for an idea).
Fox the Tiger is 32 pages. The font size is at least 18-point. The lines are generally 5 words long, ranging from 2 to 9 words per line. The spacing between the words and lines is at least 18-point font. There are generally 2 lines of text per page, ranging from 1 to 3. The pages are balanced with the illustrations and text and leave a good amount of white space for early readers. The images are realistic yet playful sketches of the characters and story.
Fox the Tiger is a good book for a child to read with an adult to make the transition from picture books to readers. There are plenty of pictures and sight words written in a simple format. It is a good story that positively reinforces that each individual is special.
Book Notes 