Summary

Davy Liu’s Invisible Tails or IT Series is a collection of stories from the perspective of an animal or set of animals that may have witnessed a significant event in Biblical history (i.e. animals heading to the Ark before the flood, fish in the Red Sea when Moses divided it, the colt that Jesus rode on during Palm Sunday). This mixed bag of art, story, symbolism, and historical fact is in many ways charming and delightful, even as it has a few confusing elements.

Assessment

In terms of physical quality, this book series is incredibly difficult to beat. The boxed set of six stories is sturdy, well-designed in terms of art, and feels great to the touch. The books themselves convey confidence that they are made to last and are formatted in an unfussy and easy to read way.

The artwork has a paper cut-out style that is quite heavy in colors and textures for kids’ illustrations, but not in an unappealing way. The illustrations convey a sense of richness and weight that fits the stories quite well. Occasionally a piece of the “papercut” will look a bit too realistic and throws the mostly cartoony art off a little, but that is not something most kids are going to notice.

The stories themselves are typically excellent in concept but can be tricky to navigate by the reader. They waver between being a symbolic parallel to the Biblical story they are linked to and their own, independent story and message. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does make the storytelling aspect of these books a little chaotic.

Light-o-Meter

Artwork: 3 out of 7 Little Lights
Writing: 3 out of 7 Little Lights
Age-Appropriateness: 5 out of 7 Little Lights
Theological Message: 3 out of 7 Little Lights
Overall: 4 out of 7 Little Lights

Talk

My overarching thought for this series is that: where it shines, it shines brilliantly and eloquently. However, it keeps tripping over its own feet in terms of writing, symbolism, or sometimes the art itself. It tries a bit too hard to be rich and vibrant and it comes across as a little noisy and chaotic (for me, a three-year-old girl may love it!). It also tries a bit too hard to read deeply into each Biblical story and ends up wandering off script.

This being said, I do love how much depth there is in the art as well as the dynamic of “looking at a Biblical story through the eyes of a bystander”. There is so much that can be explored in viewing these Biblical events from the perspective of someone who isn’t directly involved — much like how the bulk of Christianity reads the Bible; none of us alive today were direct participants in any of these events, but we view them from an outside perspective — that I really want to see more of this series. The overarching concept is absolutely fantastic, it feels like it just needs a little fine-tuning.

The one big concern that I have is with something that I am pretty sure is just a mistake or an error. In the book Jordan’s Guest (which is about the colt that carried Jesus on Palm Sunday; I absolutely love, love, love that part of the story), there is a dog name Sheba who is — from the writing — female. However, in the artwork the dog is depicted as having both male and female anatomy at the same time.

Given the current state of societal affairs, I am very, very cautious about anything that might suggest a confused gender identity or might accidentally lead children — who are already being bombarded by so much of this from other sources — to misunderstand their God-given biological sex and gender. Once again, I do think this is probably a simple error given what we at Brainy Pixel know of the creator of this series, but I did want to mention if anyone or their child struggles with this particular sin.

Wrap-up

Davy Liu’s Invisible Tails series takes a new perspective on classic Bible stories. Looking at the stories through the eyes of the animals that lived through them, this book series has a few rough edges but is in general beautifully illustrated and suitable for younger children.

We got a cute papercraft of Kendu the Fox as part of the entire Kendu Kids experience. I absolutely loved putting it together and it was made of high-quality materials!

Where to Enjoy

Amazon*: The Invisible Tails Series Complete Set (5 Books): Davy Liu: 9781937212308: Amazon.com: Books

Kendu Kids: Six books set with slipcase - Kendu Kids

*This is the five-book set, which is missing “The Fish with No Tail”

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Invisible Tales (Series)