Foxy Tales - The Cunning Plan by Caryl Hart and Alex T Smith
| Foxy Tales - The Cunning Plan by Caryl Hart and Alex T Smith | |
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| Category: Emerging Readers | |
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Reviewer: Anne Thompson
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| Summary: The first in a new series for emerging readers this comical tale of dastardly deeds and absurd adventures should be a hit. The engaging illustrations add to the book’s appeal. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 176 | Date: March 2014 |
| Publisher: Hodder Children's Books | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 9781444909319 | |
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Foxy DuBois is on a mission to get rich quick and to get rid of that pest, Alphonso the Alligator for good, otherwise the greedy alligator is going to eat Foxy for breakfast. However she needs Alphonso’s help to ensure that her plan will succeed. In order for the scheme to work Alphonso must dress as a lady dog walker and distract a rich old lady while Foxy kidnaps her small dogs. Alphonso will then pretend to find the dogs and the rich old lady, full of gratitude, will give them a generous reward. How could this possibly go wrong? Very, very easily...
We were first introduced to Foxy and Alphonso in the picture books Egg and Catch us if you Can-Can by Alex T Smith but in this tale Caryl Hart takes on the story writing and we are transferred to the world of the East Street Eazy Diner and the surrounding neighbourhood. In my mind Tony Ravioli the barman undoubtedly speaks with a New York accent. The plot hurtles along with all manner of mishaps along the way, largely because Alphonso does not have much in the way of brains. It is all utterly crazy but it works.
This book has slightly more text than Alex T Smith’s other series for emerging readers, the brilliant Claude books, and would therefore be excellent as the next step on the reading ladder. The chapters are short and the illustrations are wonderful, full of comic touches and lots of detail. Children may already be familiar with the characters from the picture books and this familiarity can be very reassuring as they become independent readers. This book would be great for demonstrating to children that reading can be enjoyable fun rather than a plod through the traditional type of reading schemes. In addition humour and illustrations often help persuade slightly older but reluctant readers to enjoy books too so this book should be kept in mind for tempting them also.
The extras at the end of the book including an interview with Foxy, Alphonso’s Ice Cream Sundae recipe and a Top Trumps Game are an amusing bonus.
This is great fun and I would like to thank Hodder Children’s Books for sending this copy for review.
Happily there has been a recent growth in the publication of great books for emerging readers and these include the Claude books already mentioned, the first of which is Claude in the Cityand the gorgeous Dixie O'Day in the Fast Lane by Shirley Hughes and Clara Vulliamy For readers moving on to slightly longer stories I would recommend Operation Bunny - Wings & Co by Sally Gardner
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You can read more book reviews or buy Foxy Tales - The Cunning Plan by Caryl Hart and Alex T Smith at Amazon.com.
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