Review by Booklist Review
Ages 3^-7. In the same format and style as their Gingerbread Man (1998) and Aunt Pitty Patty's Piggy (1999), Aylesworth and McClintock offer another nostalgic folktale that's perfect for read-alouds. Bored with chickens, Tricky Fox boasts that he can steal a pig. "I'll eat my hat if you do!" says his brother, and the bet is on. Playing on humans' natural curiosity, the clever fox tricks two elderly neighbors into filling his sack with treats, but a third woman, a teacher, outwits Fox by putting a bulldog in his sack.. Unaware, Fox returns triumphantly with his bulging sack, and Brother eats his hat, literally, before the ferocious pup leaps out. The folly of the well-dressed, rascally animals and their human counterparts, rendered in McClintock's signature style (reminiscent of fine, nineteenth-century illustrations) inspires giggles. Aylesworth's words, in bouncy rhythms and nursery rhymes, will get kids to cheer along with the story. An infectious choice for fans of the team's previous titles. --Gillian Engberg
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
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.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-As they did in The Gingerbread Man (Scholastic, 1998), Aylesworth and McClintock have teamed up again, this time to create the wiliest of creatures in this version of "The Travels of a Fox." Acting on a bet he makes with Brother Fox, Tricky Fox vows to bring home a pig rather than a chicken for supper. He begs his way into homes, carrying a bag. When he goes to sleep, he tells the host to keep an eye on his bag, but not to look inside it. Knowing human nature, he figures that the homeowner will take a peek. During the night, he disposes of the contents of the bag and in the morning claims that something better was stolen. Of course, his hostess is embarrassed that this has happened in her own home and replaces whatever the fox claimed was in his sack. He pulls this con on several unsuspecting women until he meets up with a teacher, who sees through the ruse and puts her ferocious bulldog in his sack. What a surprise both Tricky and Brother Fox get when they open the bag at home. The romping good humor of the story is carried by the old-fashioned illustrations in sepia tones. Their size diversity-from small insets to full-page spread-moves the story to its conclusion. The tale is told by the teacher who finally unmasks the rascal. The expressions on Tricky and his unsuspecting victims are priceless.-Barbara Buckley, Rockville Centre Public Library, NY(c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
(Primary) Although the kindly teacher reading in her one-room classroom sets her tale in ""woods not so very far away,"" we are still surprised when she emerges as the hero of the story, outsmarting Tricky Fox. In a concise source note, Aylesworth confesses his longtime affection for this New England ""trading"" trickster tale, in which Tricky Fox brags to Brother Fox that he can steal a pig. (""I'll eat my hat if you do!"" says Brother Fox, recklessly.) Three times the fox, feigning age and fatigue, gains entry to nearby cottages and upgrades the contents of his sack, fooling the human owners of the cottages into exchanging a loaf of bread for a log of wood, a chicken for a loaf of bread, and-almost-the prized pig for a chicken. The kindly teacher, herself the fox's third intended victim, overhears him singing his gleeful, sassy song-""I'm so clever-tee-hee-hee!... Human folks ain't smart like me""-and, demonstrating a teacher's greater smarts, puts her pet bulldog into the sack instead of the supposed pig. McClintock's lively line gets the tale's mischief just right-her wily Fox even winks conspiratorially at the reader. Watercolor vignettes of varying size with an irregular beige background enliven this winsome story as Fox capers through the spacious antique white pages, appearing sometimes as often as four times on a page in energetic poses of deception and delight. The expectant faces of the polite children listening to their teacher on the first page gives way to contained glee at the end when they listen to the tongue-in-cheek moral that resident foxes have learned: more respect for humans, no singing sassy songs, and no hat wearing. Aylesworth's spirited telling concludes with his great-grandmother's recipe for Tricky Fox's Eat-Your-Hat Cookies. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A veteran educator, Aylesworth slips young would-be tricksters a friendly warning in this trippingly retold folktale. Boasting that hes slyer than any human, Tricky Fox sets out to parlay a piece of firewood into a pig. Passing himself off as a weary traveler, hes successful at first, exchanging the wood for a loaf of bread, and the loaf for a chicken. But the woman who owns the pig happens to be a teacher and, as we all know, teachers are not so easy to fool as regular humans. Fox hauls his heavy sack home in triumphonly to discover not a pig inside, but a bulldog. McClintock gives her finely detailed illustrations a 19th-century cast and look, with a bushy-tailed fox capering about on hindlegs, long-dressed, buttoned-down women with pinned-up hair, and everyone with slightly oversized heads to make facial expressions easier to see. With Tricky Foxs gleeful jingleIm so clevertee-hee-hee! / Trick, trick, tricky! Yes, siree! / Snap your fingers. Slap your knee. / Human folks aint smart like me. for a chorus, this lighthearted caper from the creators of Aunt Pitty Pattys Piggy (1999) is made for reading aloud. Source note. (Picture book/folktale. 6-8)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
