{"id":1756,"date":"2025-01-27T15:45:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-27T15:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=1756"},"modified":"2025-01-27T15:45:00","modified_gmt":"2025-01-27T15:45:00","slug":"book-review-a-tail-tale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=1756","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: A Tail Tale"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Tail Tale<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

by Christine Kessides<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong> Children\u2019s Picture Book<\/p>\n

ISBN: <\/strong>9798891324152<\/p>\n

Print Length:<\/strong> 36 pages<\/p>\n

Publisher:<\/strong> Atmosphere Press<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Reviewed by Toni Woodruff<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>A touching fable with lovable characters, good advice, and the power to endure<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Wally isn\u2019t invited to play with the others at the playground. Some call him a slow-poke; they don\u2019t pick him for the soccer team. And on the way home from his new school, he sits alone on the bus.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I were special.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sitting under a tree outside of his house, he makes a wish that he could be special enough to be included. And special this story becomes.<\/p>\n

There appears the Tailor, an elfish creature with a funny hat who provides the tails for all the animals on the planet. Would Wally want one? Is that the special he was looking for?<\/p>\n

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A snake, coiling down from a tree branch, wouldn\u2019t recommend getting help from The Tailor. \u201cLook what he did to me. I\u2019m nothing but tail.\u201d <\/em><\/strong>But with the way Wally\u2019s life has been going, he\u2019s at least willing to try. A monkey tail is great, fun, but the other kids will think it\u2019s unfair. A lion\u2019s tail is impressive, sweeping, but you can\u2019t use your hands or your tail in soccer. Last but not least, maybe a scary alligator tail is best, so no kids pull it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the end, no tail seems right. Snake knows the feeling, starting to weep about his tail-like existence. But maybe it\u2019ll be all right for all of them. Maybe Wally has found his tail after all, a slithery little best friend to show off at school.<\/p>\n

A Tail Tale<\/em> by Christine Kessides reads like your favorite childhood fable growing up. Sure it\u2019s about a mythical creature and a talking snake, but it\u2019s a story about making do with what you have, being creative, sticking together, and overcoming bullying and exclusion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is a story with a big heart and a big mind. It\u2019s enjoyable on the story-level\u2014I\u2019d be surprised if your kid doesn\u2019t remember the lovable elfish Tailor for a long time\u2014but it also has Wally transforming from bullied to confident helper for the down-and-out snake, providing real life advice that he\u2019s had to learn the hard way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What should you do when you\u2019re getting bullied? This book teaches the art of looking your bullies in the eye, telling them that you don\u2019t like it, and, if needed, getting an adult involved. I love that we flip the script on Wally without him even knowing it. He doesn\u2019t know he\u2019s learned from the situation until he has the snake to help and take care of. We leave proud of Wally and feeling like it\u2019d be a blessing if our kid acted like Wally recommends in the book.<\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t get out of here without talking about the fun addition of The Tailor. Welcome to the lexicon of forever-memorable fable characters like leprechauns or Rumplestiltskin, Tailor! This friendly elfish character pops up in a funny outfit and feathers peaking out of his pockets, ready to provide Wally a humorous solution that will teach him a lesson in the end. I kept waiting for The Tailor to turn out tricky in some way, but he really is here to help\u2014even if helping doesn\u2019t look as magical as it first appears.<\/p>\n

A Tail Tale <\/em>is a welcome addition to fable canon. Your kids are going to love it, and you are too if you\u2019ve been looking for a good excuse to talk about bullying and inclusion on the playground.<\/p>\n

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Thank you for reading Toni Woodruff\u2019s book review of A Tail Tale <\/em>by Christine Kessides! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.<\/p>\n

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The post Book Review: A Tail Tale<\/a> appeared first on Independent Book Review<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Tail Tale by Christine Kessides Genre: Children\u2019s Picture Book ISBN: 9798891324152 Print Length: 36 pages Publisher: Atmosphere Press Amazon Bookshop Reviewed by Toni Woodruff A touching fable with lovable characters, good advice, and the power to endure Wally isn\u2019t invited to play with the others at the playground. Some call him a slow-poke; they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1756"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}