CALDECOTT MEDAL WINNER – 1972
by Nonny Hogrogian
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1971
28 pp.
Age: 3 +
Interests: folktales, animals, foxes, Armenian folktales
One fine day a fox steals milk from a farmwoman, who cuts off his tail. The fox fears his friends will laugh at him without his tail – the farmwoman will only sew it back on if he returns the milk. In a long chain of negotiations, the fox finally gets some milk for the woman and gets his tail back in return.
A retelling of an old Armenian folktale. There are many stories from different countries with a similar structure: the hero/heroine needs something but whenever they ask someone for help, the response is “I will give you x, if you give me y”, thereupon they need to go ask someone else for ‘y’, and so on and so on until they finally get what they originally wanted. This version has a little more resonance than the usual hard luck story, as the sequence of events are set into motion by the fox’s misdeed – stealing the milk – and so his labours serve as penance for his crime. And at the end, with his tail sewn back on, he happily runs off to rejoin his friends.
Illustrations are bright and expressive, and the little fox becomes quite sweet as he pursues his goal. Indeed, as he carries on asking and asking various people and animals for what he needs he looks more and more gentle and contrite. I like, too, that his main motivation in getting his tail back is simply so that his friends won’t laugh at him.
Rarest Kind of Best 