PRO CONNECT
Award-winning author, Sally O. Lee earned her BA in Studio Art and Art History (with distinction) from Colby College and then went on to study graphic design and painting in Boston (Art Institute of Boston) and in New York City (New York Studio School). She has had several shows of her work and received an art grant from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology to conceive and create a series of paintings, and from this came her 2002 exhibition- A Journey Into Abstraction. Some of Ms. Lee's paintings are in various private collections in the US. In recent years, Ms. Lee has begun to write and illustrate children's books. Some of them deal with the struggles of living with some form of handicap...or, as the author prefers to call it, imperfection. Many of her illustrations have been published and she has earned both academic and public recognition for her important work in children's books. She has had illustrations published in Worldlink Magazine, IEEE Magazine, and several other publications. Sally lives and works in Massachusetts with her cat, Dominic. She has written and illustrated over 30 books for children. Sally Lee writes "My children's books are an extension of my work as a painter. Writing is a new addition for me, and I am enjoying it very much. And creating the illustrations is a perfect way to continue my painting in a new direction and a nice way to complement my writing. I hope to write and illustrate many more". Ms. Lee has won The Pinnacle Book Achievement Award (4 times) and The Family Choice Award (3 times).
“An upbeat story replete with child-friendly characters.”
– Kirkus Reviews
Author-illustrator Lee (Pop! Pop! Bam! Bam!, 2013) follows one cat through his lonely life until his owner arrives in this repetitious picture book for the very young.
A playful gray cat goes through a series of emotions and actions over the course of his day. He hides behind a fire hydrant waiting to pounce on a mouse, showing that he’s hungry. He hides beneath a dresser, expressing fear. An image of an empty chair reveals why the cat is sad. By bathing, drinking and taking a nap, the cat manages to pass the time until, at last, he’s happy in his owner’s arms. The simplistic illustrations aren’t always fully colored, but they’re kid-friendly nonetheless. Some illustrations are stronger than others; the hiding cat looks more anti-social than afraid, and the dressed-up cat (to express the concept of “fancy”) has a strangely shaped face compared to other pictures. But the image of him crawling through a yoga mat (to be “sneaky”) is a perfect representation of how felines can find the oddest places to squish themselves and amuse their owners. Some words may be challenging for newly independent readers but will be great for sounding out with parents (such as “mischievous”); others are excellent examples of action words (“slurping”). The repeated phrase “one cat,” which begins every page, will comfort independent readers by providing a recognizable phrase on each page and encourage lap readers to chime in. The opening synopsis suggests a deeper back story (the cat was a starving stray, and that’s why it begins the story hungry and afraid), but this never quite comes through in the pictures. Instead, young readers will latch onto the emotions, recognizing that they also sometimes feel lonely or afraid or silly.
A comforting book about a cat, likely to appeal to the very young.
Pub Date: March 8, 2014
ISBN: 978-1495952760
Page count: 36pp
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2014
"The Girl who was Blue" trailer
Day job
Administrative Assistant
Favorite author
J.D. Salinger
Favorite book
The Dog's of Babel
Favorite line from a book
. . . I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. Th
Favorite word
shit
Hometown
Danvers, MA
Passion in life
art
Unexpected skill or talent
cupcake maker
The girl who was blue: Pinnacle Book Achievement Award, 2012
Pop! Pop! Bam! Bam!: Pinnacle Book Achievement Award, 2014
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