It’s not hard to find a a cute book in the children’s section of your library. Not hard at all. But it’s hard to find a book that’s as cute as “Corgiville Fair” b Tasha Tudor. This book is just ridiculously cute. After all, how can you not get all giggly over anthropomorphic corgis?
You know what a corgi is, don’t you? Well, just in case you don’t Tudor explains: “Corgis are small dogs the color of foxes. They have short legs and no tails. They are enchanted. You need only to see them by the moonlight to realize this.”
Once you’ve got this down, then the book takes you on a quick tour of the town and you get to follow the residents to the Corgiville Fair, the biggest event of the year after Christmas.
Like many children’s books, “Corgiville Fair” whole-heartily embraces rural life and just explodes with joy over the idea of a county fair.
There’s the food stands and the vegetable growing contests. There’s the crafting bees. There’s the livestock competitions and the recipes vying for blue ribbons. Yes, everything about a fair is great fun in Corgiville — even when things go bad for our family of corgis.
In fact, this story is the perfect way to introduce your little one to what a fair is like . It’s chaos if you look at the big picture, but you see its actually controlled chaos once you understand the rules. That is a great lesson.
Of course, the best part of “Corgiville Fair” is the imaginative and colorful illustrations by Tasha Tudor. Her backgrounds, building and scenery are spot-on representations of the real world, it’s her characters that make the book. Her characters aren’t people though, and if this story were just about people it would be as dull as corn in January. Instead it’s about corgis and cats and rabbits and crows, and that’s how it becomes something special.
The other thing you should know about “Corgiville” is that if you like it — and I mean really, really like it — then you’ve just got to check out the toyline called “Calico Critters.” The little figurines, first introduced in the 1980s owe a huge debt to Tasha Tudor’s designs and asthetics. The toys, which include their share of kittens and rabbits, might as well just go ahead and make a Corgi family too, licensed by Tudor’s estate of course. They share all the homespun charm of Corgiville’s residents, so they might as well complete the circle and give us some of those enchanting little pooches.
And while we’re at it, we wouldn’t mind a Boggart or two.
ISBN: 0-316-85312-7 / 0-316-85329-1
PUBLISHER: Little, Brown & Co
YEAR: 1971
AUTHOR: Tasha Tudor
ARTIST:Tasha Tudor
TOUGHEST WORDS: Enormous, spectators
DENSITY OF TEXT: Medium. A few sentences per page
COMIC BOOK-NESS: While overall it’s not a comic, the book could certainly be a comic, and there’s enough information here to make several stories.
WOULD IT BE A GOOD MOVIE? Yes, and if you don’t want a movie, it could make a cute daily cartoon
THEMES: Life at fair, fair play and cheating
WEBSITE: Tasha Tudor and Family
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