Title: Victor and the Tactibbarlemac
Author: Jan Atkinson
Publisher: Reading Glass Books
ISBN: 1962497291
Pages: 48
Genre: Illustrated Children’s Book
Reviewer: Beth Adams
Pacific Book Review
Author Jan Atkinson has created an original, silly, and fun children’s book, titled Victor and the Tactibbarlemac. What’s a Tactibbarlemac you ask? I didn’t know either, but luckily Atkinson provides a hint to parents on the first page – a tactibbarlemac is a camel rabbit cat spelled backwards.
Readers are transported into an idyllic land called Kenerick, where all creatures both big and small live in peaceful harmony. However, the critters became jealous of one another: the cats wished they had a hump to store water like the camels; the camels wanted to jump like the rabbits; while the rabbits were jealous of the cats because they had a tail which could swat flies.
So this jealousy grew until one day a powerful sorcerer came and told them to all behave and to get along, otherwise something ominous will happen! At first that scary warning worked, but as time went on, the jealousy reappeared when – you guessed it, the sorcerer came back – and using his power made them all into tactibbarlemacs! They lived together underground until one day a human dug a hole and one of them escaped into a home with a little boy. The boy couldn’t sleep the whole night through, so the tactibbarlemac nestled into the young boy’s bed, and they both fell asleep and stayed asleep the entire night.
So, the morals of this story are many, such as jealousy of another doesn’t lead to a good end, friendship and love are the best way to get along with others, and a cute little tactibbarlemac is a great way to cuddle up for a good night’s sleep.
The imaginative and creative illustrations by artists Leslie and Chris Jones add the perfect touch of what a tactibbarlemac looks like to fill the curious minds of youngsters. Also, the bouncy, humorous and skilled rhyming text keeps a sing-song beat of happy words exposing little ones to the vocabulary of new words while comforting and lulling them into dreamland.
All in all, Victor and the Tactibbarlemac is a book which parents can leave by the crib or bedside table to keep company with their loved ones as the night brings upon them a safe, happy, and fun-filled dream. It’s a great bedtime story, while it instills in youngsters a feeling of being happy with who and what they are – not wishing they had a tail like a cat, rabbit paws, a hump like a camel, or whatever their little minds can think of.
