Trouble with Tattle-Tails

Jonathan Auxier and Olga Demidova

Image | Trouble with Tattle-Tails by Jonathan Auxier, illustrated by Olga Demidova

(Puffin)

Auggie was just like most other boys, except in one way. Auggie had a job. Auggie worked in the Fabled Stables — a magical place full of one-of-a-kind creatures. Sometimes the Fabled Stables changed to make room for a new beast. The whole place would shake, and then Auggie would find a new stall that led to a beast somewhere in the Wide World. It was Auggie's job to go out and rescue that beast from danger. In this second instalment, a new stall appears with a sign: Tattle-Tail. Although this doesn't sound like a very friendly thing, Auggie knows it's his job to help. Peering in the new stall, he can see a little village with a tall tower in the middle.
The Tattle-Tail is somewhere in that village. Together with Willa the Wisp and Fen, the stick-in-the-mud, Auggie makes his way to the village, where he's surprised to discover not one, but many Tattle-Tails — all of the villagers have a talking tail attached to them, tails that tattle on their humans, blabbing all their secrets out loud. Auggie and Willa try everything they can to get the tails off the villagers, but all they manage to do is get tails of their own! (From Puffin Canada)
Jonathan Auxier is a children's book author from Vancouver. He is also the author of The Night Gardener, Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard and Sweep. Sweep won the 2018 Governor General's Literary Award for young people's literature — text. Auxier wrote an original short story called Vanishing Point for the special CBC Books(external link) series Borders.
Olga Demidova is a Russian-born artist and illustrator.