A Tiger Tail: Or What Happened to Anya on Her First Day of School

No kid wants to stand out for the wrong reasons on the first day of school. For Anya, that anxiety takes on a Kafka-lite physical manifestation: she wakes up on the big day and discovers that she has grown an actual tiger’s tail. Her parents are no help (“I felt the same way when I got glasses,” says Dad, cluelessly. “Don’t fret. You’re exactly the same Anya you’ve always been”), and her own efforts to detach the tail come to naught. “Anya was doomed,” writes Boldt (Loud Lula). Then she makes a new friend who has rabbit ears, and Anya (and readers) get the message that difference comes in all shapes, sizes, and stripes. Boldt has a fine idea and the pictures to match: his digitally rendered images have a painterly, acrylic texture and sculptural exaggeration that dovetail well with the humorously over-the top situation. Ages 4–8. Agent: Jennifer Rofé, Andrea Brown Literary. (July)