Finnegan and Fox: The Ten-Foot Cop

by Helen L. Wilbur, John Manders (Illustrator)

Overview

Finnegan is a horse. But he is not just any horse. Finnegan is a proud member of the New York City Police Department. He and his human partner, Officer T. J. Fox, are part of the NYPD Mounted Unit. Together they make one ten-foot cop! Each morning, after roll call, Finnegan and T. J. take to the streets, a familiar and welcome sight to the people who live in the area. Times Square is their beat and it's a busy one. More than one million people move through it every day, from New Yorkers on their way to work to the thousands of tourists who visit the popular area. It would be very easy to get lost in this rushing crowd. One day, as Finnegan and T. J. move through a fairly routine day, that's exactly what happens to one little girl. And it's Finnegan to the rescue!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781627530217
Publisher:	Sleeping Bear Press
Publication date:	04/15/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
File size:	4 MB
Age Range:	9 - 10 Years

About the Author

A former librarian, Helen L. Wilbur spent many years in the world of publishing. She has a B.A. in English Language and Literature from the University of Chicago and an M.A. in Library Science from Columbia University. Helen’s award-winning children’s books include Finnegan and Fox: The Ten-Foot Cop (2014 Bank Street Best Books of the Year for Children, 2013 Creative Child Seal of Excellence Award), Lily’s Victory Garden (2011 Storytelling World Resource Honor Award: Stories for Pre-Adolescent Listeners Category, 2011 IRA Teacher’s Choices Reading List – Primary Category), Z is for Zeus: A Greek Mythology Alphabet (2009 Mom’s Choice Award) and M is for Meow: A Cat Alphabet (a 2007 ASPCA Henry Bergh Honor Book). She shares her writing experiences at conferences, schools, and libraries. Helen lives on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, and spends her summers in the mountains of New Hampshire. Read more about her at helenwilbur.com.

John Manders studied at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, the School of Visual Arts, and the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. His work has been featured in more than 60 children’s books and numerous children’s magazines, and in 2011 he wrote and illustrated The Really Awful Musicians. John’s work has been exhibited at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh gallery and the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum, and he was honored in the 25-year retrospective of Cricket magazine covers. In 2006 he was named Outstanding Illustrator/Author by the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association. John lives with his wife and dog in Franklin, Pennsylvania.

Editorial Reviews

It’s a classic New York City buddy-cop story, but one of the officers is 10 years old, weighs more than 1,200 pounds, and has four hooves. Wilbur (F Is for Friend-ship: A Quilt Alphabet) offers a lighthearted tribute to the NYPD’s Mounted Unit, with seen-it-all narration provided by a horse named Finnegan, who patrols Times Square with his partner, Tyrone Jefferson Fox. Despite some wisecracking comments (“Not everyone feels comfortable around a police officer. People can be annoying. But who doesn’t like a horse?”), it’s clear Finnegan takes his job seriously. And after a day spent greeting tourists and neighborhood regulars, he gets a chance to prove his mettle by finding a lost girl. Manders (Cowboy Christmas), working in gouache and pencil, is in fine form, capturing the energy and diversity of the city in his bustling cartoons, as well as the story’s emotional highs and lows—the shadowy blue alley that the lost girl winds up in looks truly scary, and seeing Finnegan the hero’s image on the giant signs of Times Square makes for a fittingly triumphant conclusion. Ages 6–8. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

K-Gr 2—Finnegan, a horse, and his partner, Officer Fox, patrol the Times Square area of New York City as part of the NYPD Mounted Unit. While on duty, they stop to talk with street vendors, locals, and a group of children from Cheyenne, Wyoming. Finnegan is impressed with the students' knowledge of horses. One young girl in particular, Maggie, presses her head against Finnegan's face and pets his mane. Later that day, the partners get a call that a child is missing. Officer Fox dismounts to follow a lead. Finnegan breaks his trained behaviors and moves down an alley when he hears a rustling. There, he finds Maggie hiding in a box because she got separated from her group and became frightened when she heard so many strangers calling her name. Finnegan is a hero. He delights in the applause and cheers as he walks back through Times Square to see his name and picture on the digital news sign. The story is told by Finnegan and contains some excellent, horse-specific vocabulary and facts about the Mounted Unit in NYC. However, the book is long on text, and some elements of the story are extraneous to the central plot. The vivid illustrations capture the bustle of the Big Apple and the good-natured relationship that Finnegan and Officer Fox have with their city.—Lindsay Persohn, University of South Florida, Tampa

School Library Journal