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Wall Street Journal

Children's Books: ‘Do You See the Tiger?'

Children, as is well known, can see things that are invisible to adults. Where our jaded eyes perceive a table, a child beholds a secret hideaway. Where you or I might notice clouds of water vapor, someone much younger will observe cotton candy or an incipient genie. Philip Ardagh's lightly rhyming picture book 'Do You See the Tiger?' takes such imaginative divergence to charming lengths. In this story for readers ages 4-7, a little girl and her father go down into the London Underground to catch a train. The girl, Penny, notices that among the straphangers there's a passenger with distinctive feline attributes and a mischievous twinkle in his eye. Does she see a tiger? According to David Melling's exuberant illustrations, she does: The great cat is right there, its massive paws and black-and-orange fur hidden beneath a commuter's bland attire of hat and coat. Penny's father sees . . . nothing. He is, after all, an adult taking mass transportation, and if there's any place that people his age zone out, it's the subway. When a small boy drops his stuffed animal while getting off the train, Penny and the tiger establish a glorious rapport. When it's Penny's turn to leave, the tiger bids her farewell with a terrific roar. Says Penny's oblivious father on the platform: 'Can't complain, / but that really was a noisy train!' As for his daughter: 'This was Penny's best day ever. / She would remember it / FOREVER.' Sean E. Avery relates an amusing, low-key tale of invention and perseverance in the picture book 'Frank's Red Hat.' In collage illustrations that evoke the monochromatic iciness of Antarctica, we meet a penguin named Frank, an ideas guy who comes up with a newfangled doohickey for keeping the head warm. His fellow penguins are dubious: They've never seen a hat before, let alone a red hat, and they don't like it. We see Frank holding the worrisome item out to a friend to try. 'I promise you will be fine,' Frank says. 'But Neville was not fine,' we read, for a passing orca chooses that moment to leap from the sea and eat Neville 'in one big bite.' Now the penguins are leerier than ever about Frank and his 'evil' invention. Perhaps in a different color? Frank rapidly knits hats in other hues (all nicely labeled) of azure, magenta, apricot, coral and lime. Alas, there's still no market for his product—or so he thinks, until he finds a receptive new consumer base in this optimistic fable for readers ages 5-8. Tiffany Stone's humorous seek-and-find counting book 'Six Little Sticks,' illustrated by Ruth Hengeveld, features an insect known for its skill at camouflage. The conceit of the story is that a mother stick bug plans to teach her six babies how to stay safe by concealing themselves, but before she has a chance to start her lesson, the babies hide themselves, one by one. 'No little sticks. / Six sticks are gone. / Is Mama worried? Is Mama mad? / No. Look, Mama is really . . . glad!' Sharp-eyed young readers will enjoy searching the pictures for tiny, comic clues as to the whereabouts of the babies as they practice counting down from six to one and back up again to six and beyond.