Fox and Son Tailers

Paddy Donnelly’s new picture book will suit young readers perfectly. It celebrates the joy and importance of creativity, family love and relationships, and it has a particularly fine ‘what if’ as its starting point. Fox and Son Tailers you see, have been providing tails to smartly dressed animals for generations. Their shop is always busy, filled with birds and animals of all sorts trying on tails for size. Rory, youngest in the family, helps his dad in the shop, measuring the customers. Each spread is filled with bustle and activity so that you can almost hear the chatter of the customers, the opening and closing of doors and drawers. The pages depicting the fittings for the first day back at school is particularly hectic, feathers, tape measures and fluffy tails flying everywhere as little bunnies cause chaos.

A note of discord enters when Rory shows his dad his ideas for new tails – different, more flamboyant. His dad dismisses Rory’s designs as silly, but when a customer arrives looking for something fabulous, Rory’s sketches are just the thing. Rory worries he’ll be in trouble, but his dad surprises him and soon they’re working together to bring Rory’s creations to life. The final spread shows Rory running the shop, tails now available in all colours, shapes and sizes. Donnelly’s digital artwork has a gorgeous textured, painterly feel that is just right for the story and there’s much to enjoy, discover and discuss in this story.