#924 of 1001 · February 10, 2023

On a dark night, when I’m in the mood for a good shiver, I crack open Joanna and Paul Galdone’s The Tailypo, quite possibly the scariest ever put into picture book form. An old man lives out in a cabin in the wilderness with only his dogs for company. One night, when the hunt has turned up precious little meat, a strange animal with a long bushy tail creeps into the cabin. The man chops off the tail, cooks it in his pot, eats it, and goes to bed happy. In the middle of the night, he hears the creature scratching around outside and calling relentlessly for its missing tail. He repeatedly sets his dogs on the thing, but it cannot be driven away. Finally, it creeps into the house and appears by the side of the bed. Though the man denies having eaten the tail, the infernal thing proceeds to scratch him to pieces, destroying the cabin for good measure. Joanna Galdone’s eerie narrative makes ruthlessly effective use of the refrain: “Tailypo, tailypo,/all I want is my tailypo.” Paul Galdone depicts the monster as a dark, furry blob staring at the old man with wide, yellow eyes. Together, the daughter-father team execute a riveting, nightmarish ghost story, coldly and utterly devoid of the comfort of a happy ending. #cabin #house #forest #woods #dog #dogs #tail #monster #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbooks #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks