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ZAT CAT!

Name: ZAT CAT!
Author: Chesley McLaren
ISBN: 0-439-27316-1

A HAUTE COUTURE TAIL

by Chesley McLaren & illustrated by Chesley McLaren ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

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McLaren, who illustrated Shana Corey’s delicious You Forgot Your Skirt, Amelia Bloomer (2000) may have a somewhat harder time finding an audience for this one. Her feline hero is a scruffy stray in Paris, and his tale is told in rhyme sprinkled with slightly fractured French (translation and pronunciation provided on each page). He leads his life in the Jardin Luxembourg and hangs around posh hotels, while maids and guards occasionally give chase. When Monsieur Pierre’s fashion show opens at Le Grand Salon, however, Cat sneaks backstage and, terrified, claws and rips the collection to shreds. But the show must go on, so the models slink out in their frayed frocks, and voilà! It’s a great success. The cat, christened Etoile, appears on the cover of Vogue, and everyone takes to shredding their dresses. McLaren has a vivacious and insinuating line, and her gouache drawings are predominantly black, rose, and red. They fairly burst from the page, full of joie de vivre as she sketches wonderful couture gowns, supercilious designers, and flower-filled rooms and streets. However, it is hard to see just what child appeal there might be, although adults (this is dedicated to those who “love Glamour, Paris & pink”) of the female persuasion may be charmed. (Picture book. 6-9)

Pub Date: March 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-439-27316-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2002

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS

- BOOK REVIEW
WHEN ROYALS WORE RUFFLES
by Chesley McLaren and Pamela Jaber and illustrated by Chesley McLaren

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HENRY AND MUDGE AND THE STARRY NIGHT

From the Henry and Mudge series

by Cynthia Rylant & illustrated by Sucie Stevenson ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1998

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Rylant (Henry and Mudge and the Sneaky Crackers, 1998, etc.) slips into a sentimental mode for this latest outing of the boy and his dog, as she sends Mudge and Henry and his parents off on a camping trip. Each character is attended to, each personality sketched in a few brief words: Henry's mother is the camping veteran with outdoor savvy; Henry's father doesn't know a tent stake from a marshmallow fork, but he's got a guitar for campfire entertainment; and the principals are their usual ready-for-fun selves. There are sappy moments, e.g., after an evening of star- gazing, Rylant sends the family off to bed with: ``Everyone slept safe and sound and there were no bears, no scares. Just the clean smell of trees . . . and wonderful green dreams.'' With its nice tempo, the story is as toasty as its campfire and swaddled in Stevenson's trusty artwork. (Fiction. 6-8)

Pub Date: April 1, 1998

ISBN: 0-689-81175-6

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1998

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS

- BOOK REVIEW
ROSETOWN FOREVER
by Cynthia Rylant

- BOOK REVIEW
A BOOK OF LOVES
by Cynthia Rylant ; illustrated by Cynthia Rylant

- BOOK REVIEW
HORNBEAM BY AND LARGE
by Cynthia Rylant ; illustrated by Arthur Howard

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BIG CHICKENS

by Leslie Helakoski & illustrated by Henry Cole ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2006

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With wordplay reminiscent of Margie Palatini at her best, Helakoski takes four timorous chickens into, then out of, the literal and figurative woods. Fleeing the henhouse after catching sight of a wolf, the pusillanimous pullets come to a deep ditch: “ ‘What if we can’t jump that far?’ ‘What if we fall in the ditch?’ ‘What if we get sucked into the mud?’ The chickens tutted, putted, and flutted. They butted into themselves and each other, until one by one . . . ” they do fall in. But then they pick themselves up and struggle out. Ensuing encounters with cows and a lake furnish similar responses and outcomes; ultimately they tumble into the wolf’s very cave, where they “picked, pecked, and pocked. They ruffled, puffled, and shuffled. They shrieked, squeaked, and freaked, until . . . ” their nemesis scampers away in panic. Fluttering about in pop-eyed terror, the portly, partly clothed hens make comical figures in Cole’s sunny cartoons (as does the flummoxed wolf)—but the genuine triumph in their final strut—“ ‘I am a big, brave chicken,’ said one chicken. ‘Ohh . . . ’ said the others. ‘Me too.’ ‘Me three.’ ‘Me four’ ”—brings this tribute to chicken power to a rousing close. (Picture book. 6-8)