It’s a Tiger by David LaRochelle and Jeremy Tankard

Here’s how I know if a book is a winner: Ella lets me read it to her at the library.

See, when we’re at the library, there are those little computers that she loves to play on, and board books to pull of the shelf and read, librarians to ask for stamps, and puppets to look endlessly at.

The books I’ve put on hold? Much less interesting until we’re home on our own couch.

But when I showed her It’s a Tiger, she was instantly ready to read it. And when we’d finished it, she asked to read it again. And again. And again. We read it four times straight through.

And its popularity has held. This has been one of the most successful books I’ve EVER checked out for her.

The story follows a little boy through the jungle who keeps stumbling on a tiger, no matter how he tries to escape. Each new place he goes, you can see a bit of the tiger peeking out, ready to pounce.

Ella LOVES pointing out the tiger’s tail or shadow on each page, and then when the tiger is revealed on the subsequent pages, she can’t shout loudly enough, “A TIGER! RUN! RUN! RUN! RUN!” (I’m sure the librarians loved this).

Everything about this book is perfect – the illustrations are bright and funny, the text moves right along, and the storyline is strong from start to finish. Check this one out. Or buy it, which is probably what I’ll need to do when we’ve run through all the renewals the library will let us do.

Copy checked out from my local library