Tale of a Tail

Bodnar's (A Wagonload of Fish) lighthearted trickster tale may well put readers in mind of Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear, as Sandford's (Moonstick: The Seasons of the Sioux) whimsical oil paintings invent a fully realized woodland community. A fox, unwilling to share the basketful of trout he's caught, tells the hungry bear pounding at his door to catch his own fish: ""Hang your tail in the water and don't twitch a muscle.... There never was anything better for a fishing pole than a bear's tail."" But the fox's joke backfires when the bear, stuck fast in the ice by his tail, tugs and tugs until he pulls the frozen lake out behind him and soon discovers a newly melted stream filled with more fish than he can eat. Bodnar pays homage to the classics with her seamlessly paced plotting, punctuated by droll sound effects: the ""hom-hom"" of the fox greedily gulping his trout, the ""ai-yai-yai"" of the bear's yelp in pain because of his frozen tail. While the illustrations may recall the warm characters and compositions of Jan Brett, Sandford adds inventive accents: as the bear (clad in a vest patterned with fish skeletons) dips his tail into the chilly lake, the water looks to be comprised of hundreds of tiny fish scales; when the bear drags the frozen lake ashore, it takes on the appearance of stained glass in myriad triangular shapes and pastel colors. The artist contrasts the warm, earthy hues of the fox's hearth with the shimmering tones of the winter wonderland outside. A tale to stand alongside the timeworn favorites. Ages 3-up. (Sept.)