Feiffer, K. (2007). Henry the dog with no tail. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for
Young Readers.
I am definitely an animal-lover and I am certainly,
positively a sucker for dogs. When I saw
Henry the Dog with No Tail at my
local library, I grabbed it and immediately began reading it. Although the illustrations are wonderful and
the story does have moral, the content is a bit too cheesy for my taste and it
is a story I probably would not pick up again.
Henry is an Australian shepherd and like many of this breed –
and just as the title suggests – Henry was not born with a tail. His many dog friends all have tails of
different colors, shapes, and sizes.
Grady, Pip, and Larry all have great tails that serve a particular
purpose, yet Henry is left feeling sad due to his lack of appendage. In search for a tail, Henry finds a tailor
and a wagon maker, and even goes to Battery Park in New York City. With advice and suggestions from his friends,
Henry is able to find just what he has been looking for…but is it really what
he wants after all?
Illustrator Jules Feiffer does a magnificent job of depicting
Henry the Australian shepherd and his story.
The color of the story is a mix of cools and intense colors, all of
which complement the text on the individual pages in the book. Feiffer uses charcoal pencil to establish the line of an illustration and fills in with watercolor.
Henry the Dog with No Tail would be a good
example to use within the literature setting to teach students how to write
stories that end with morals. Henry
learns a life lesson on the last page of the book. Students could follow the series of events
that leads Henry to discover this life lesson and model their own story after
Feiffer’s. I believe it would be
difficult to use the content of the story for a lesson.
Big questions to ask students after reading this story: Why
was it important for Henry to have a tail?
If you were Henry, would have wanted a tail? Do you think Henry was happier at the beginning
of the story or at the end of the story?
Nice work on this review. I wonder if it is on any of the award-winning lists?
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