Foxy Tales: The Great Jail Break: Book 3
By Author / Illustrator
Alex T. Smith, Caryl Hart
Genre
Adventure
Age range(s)
7+
Publisher
Hachette Children's Group
ISBN
9781444909333
Format
Paperback / softback
Published
05-03-2015
Synopsis
Foxy DuBois and Alphonso the Alligator find themselves in a very tight place. Can they escape? Or will it be a life behind bars for these two hapless rogues?
This is the third title in an hilarious series for young readers from an award-winning author-illustrator team. Alex's first fiction series - Claude - was selected for the Richard and Judy Children's Book Club and the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize and has been optioned for TV by Sixteen South. Alex is the World Book Day Illustrator 2014. Follow him at http://alextsmith.blogspot.co.uk and http://twitter.com/Alex_T_Smith
Caryl has been shortlisted for the Red House Award and won many awards including the Stockport Award. Follow her at www.carylhart.com and http:/twitter.com/carylhart1
'Wildly illustrated on every page by Alex T. Smith. Early reading made highly enjoyable.' Independent on Sunday
Reviews
Lizi
I was excited to pick this up; I'm familiar with Alex T Smith, having seen him whilst doing my teacher training - I enjoy his Claude series, and so do my current class of year 3s! The story itself is entertaining. The characters, Foxy Dubois and Alphonso the Alligator, are well introduced and supported by a range of entertaining others, Eric-the-Evil, Warden Gordon... this book certainly aims to make children laugh. The story is relatively short but not repetitive as the main characters find themselves in Jail and needing to escape! Their escapades are funny and light hearted, the relationship between the witty fox, and the not-so-witty alligator who keeps threatening to eat her, is one that will captivate children! This book is on its way to becoming a graphic novel, the illustrations are key to the story, not there to support. In fact, I can't really pinpoint any two pages as looking the same; the layout changes, type faces, size of text, background and pictures. It's aesthetically a really interesting book to read. No page has a great amount of text on it, and I think this would please reluctant readers, or those who are a little less confident, but want to read paperbacks. I've recommended this book for those 7+, but think that older primary children would also enjoy it. Some of the vocabulary is adventurous, using higher level words that children may not otherwise come across. Overall, I'd recommend sharing this book with reluctant readers; it's accessible and short, but doesn't look like a 'baby book'. Children must have a good sense of humour to fully appreciate this novel, but I can't wait to share it with my class!! 176 pages / Ages 7+ / Reviewed by Lizi Coombs, teacher
Suggested Reading Age 7+