Changes

''The Secret Life of a Tiger'' is a spectacular book to look at, especially if you are lucky enough to obtain the large hardback version. Each double spread is full of luscious illustrations of a jungle landscape in which we find our tiger hero partaking of one of his secret pleasures. The fact that most of the book is green foliage is not an issue as Wechterowicz Dzuibak has used touches of colour that stand out. The jungle almost acts like a frame for tiger's antics and you can view each one as a great piece of art.

When you highlight the illustrations of a children's books first it is often because it is the best element of the book and that is certainly the case here. Whilst Wechterowicz's Whilst Dzuibak drawings are sublime, DziubakWechterowicz's story is less so. The book's narrative acts more as a means of allowing the images to be made, rather than being something of themselves. They are a seemingly random selection of activities until the book ends. This is not a huge issue as children's books are often very simple to appeal to the audience, but there is also a strange ambiguity in this book; is Tiger good or bad? The book is written in a way that you cannot tell if Tiger is being sarcastic or not. This makes a huge difference as to how you see the character – secret fun lover, or manipulative carnivore? The individual reader can decide for themselves, but for a book aimed at 3-5 year olds, a clearer indication that he is nice would work better.