A Tale of a Sale

 

 

Hi Guys!

When you were a little kid, you probably saw an animal ABC book at one time or another.  If you didn't have one at home, then it's a sure bet your school library had one.  They were just part of the scene when you were learning how to read and write!

Now most of those ABC books were pretty straightforward:  they'd go through the alphabet from A to Z and for each letter, they'd show a picture of the animal whose name began with that letter.  So you'd have A for aardvark, B for bear, C for canary and so on.  

But today I've got an animal ABC that's a little different!  You see, it's an anthro animal ABC and it's got a really curious premise!   

 

 

Turns out this ABC is about an old guy who runs a curio shop.  He's got a bunch of animal tails and he's having a blowout sale! So all of these tailless critters come by to see if they can score a sweet deal!  That's the setup for this 1963 Whitman Tell-a-Tale book written by Joyce Hovelsrud and illustrated by William Heckler!

 

 

As we start off with the first letter of the alphabet, we see the first customer, an anteater, looking for just the right sort of tail for him.  Looks like he's got several to choose from.  Then comes Mr. Beaver, who's trying on a tail that's not going to work out for what he's got planned.  Are you getting the idea now?  It's up to the reader to help these animals find the right tails!

Jumping a few letters ahead, we've got this goat who wants a tail to match his, well, goatee!  I admit, there's some clever stuff in this book.  The rhymes are pretty good, too! 

Here we've got a couple of kangaroos and a lion.  Looks like they're on the right track, but why are they sharing the same basket?  And what's the proprietor got back there?  

That porcupine looks pretty scruffy!  What's he doing here?  He should be spending his money on food!  OK, well and good, but what about that rabbit?  Why does she want to stick a powder puff on her backside?  I gotta tell ya, this book makes you think!  

Looks like we're winding down, only three tails left!  The zebra found his match and I guess the proprietor is going to be wearing that fern himself!  That leaves the bizarre one for us!  

And all's well that ends well, literally!  All the animals have got the right tails and the sale has been a success!  

For some reason, the proprietor shows up on the last page to rub your face in it if you happened to choose the wrong tail, but maybe that's just an incentive to go back and try again?  You gotta love something with replay value!

Anyway, I kinda like this book.  It does what it's supposed to do and it delivers a lot of extra besides!  

OK guys, that's all I've got for now.  See you next time!

 

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