The Tale of Tricky Fox: A New England Trickster Tale » (1 ED)

The fun begins when Tricky Fox makes a bet with his brother that he can trick a silly human into giving him a pig. ³I¹ll eat my hat, if you can,² says his brother, and Tricky Fox sets off to win his bet. It appears that Tricky Fox will get himself a pig - that is, until he meets a clever schoolteacher who outsmarts him! Here is a rollicking tale filled with marvelously expressive animals, witty plot twists, and even a recipe for ³Eat Your Hat Cookies!²

Publishers Weekly

The clever collaborators behind The Gingerbread Man and Aunt Pitty Patty's Piggy offer another buoyant retelling in this tale within a tale. A teacher from yesteryear gathers her students around her to read to them a bookDwhich keen-eyed kids will recognize as the book in their own hands. It introduces Tricky Fox who brags to his brother that "I'm going to get me a fat pig!" Insisting that a fox could not possible carry such a critter, Brother Fox replies, "I'll eat my hat if you do!" The title character grows positivelyDand contagiouslyDgleeful as he tricks one and then another woman, so that it seems he just may accomplish his mission. Yet the next would-be victim of his pranks is a teacher (in fact, the very one seen on the opening page), and "Tricky Fox didn't know that teachers are not so easy to fool as regular humans are." Rendered in watercolor, black ink and gouache, McClintock's endearingly antique pictures add to the merriment, especially when the conniving fox winks at readers, drawing them into his joke. Cleverly paced repetition and an unexpected ending make this droll caper a winning choice. Ages 3-6. (Mar.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.