A very entertaining tale of a very ugly cat.
A scraggly feline finds an admirer in this bilingual book by author/illustrator Wimmer.
An unnamed but “scruffy and very ugly cat” wanders into a Spanish pueblo one morning. He approaches a farmer and his cow, hoping for some milk, but the cow runs away in horror. The farmer shouts at him to go away: “¡Fuera Gato Feo!” (“Out, Ugly Cat!”) Still hungry, the feline tries the local bakery after spotting magdalenas (small, lemony cakes, similar to muffins) in the window, but the baker chases him off as well. After a long night wandering the streets, the cat meets a little boy who thinks he’s beautiful, exclaiming, “¡Que bonito!” He paints the cat’s portrait, and “people in the pueblo now called him ‘Gato Bonito.’” The book ends with definitions and pronunciations of Spanish words as well as a brief biography of Pablo Picasso, including a picture that resembles the boy in the story, but it’s unclear if the tale draws on any nonfiction elements. Either way, this is a well-crafted picture book that ably demonstrates the lesson that beauty is always in the eye of the beholder. The art is a treat as well; when the title character is finally fully shown on the last page, it’s a hilarious reveal.
A very entertaining tale of a very ugly cat.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9780997402421
Page Count: -
Publisher: Wimmer Studios
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Echoes of Runaway Bunny color this exchange between a bath-averse piglet and his patient mother. Using a strategy that would probably be a nonstarter in real life, the mother deflects her stubborn offspring’s string of bath-free occupational conceits with appeals to reason: “Pirates NEVER EVER take baths!” “Pirates don’t get seasick either. But you do.” “Yeesh. I’m an astronaut, okay?” “Well, it is hard to bathe in zero gravity. It’s hard to poop and pee in zero gravity too!” And so on, until Mom’s enticing promise of treasure in the deep sea persuades her little Treasure Hunter to take a dive. Chunky figures surrounded by lots of bright white space in Segal’s minimally detailed watercolors keep the visuals as simple as the plotline. The language isn’t quite as basic, though, and as it rendered entirely in dialogue—Mother Pig’s lines are italicized—adult readers will have to work hard at their vocal characterizations for it to make any sense. Moreover, younger audiences (any audiences, come to that) may wonder what the piggy’s watery closing “EUREKA!!!” is all about too. Not particularly persuasive, but this might coax a few young porkers to get their trotters into the tub. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25425-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Too many bugs, figuratively.
Lucy, “the youngest member of a family of fireflies,” must overcome an irrational, moon-induced anxiety in order to leave her family tree trunk and glow.
The first six pages pull readers into a lush, beautiful world of nighttime: “When the sun has set, silence falls over the Big Forest, and all of the nighttime animals wake up.” Mixed media provide an enchanting forest background, with stylized flora and fauna eventually illuminated by a large, benign moon, because the night “doesn’t like to catch them by surprise.” Turning the page catches readers by surprise, though: the family of fireflies is decidedly comical and silly-looking. Similarly, the text moves from a lulling, magical cadence to a distinct shift in mood as the bugs ready themselves for their foray into the night: “They wave their bottoms in the air, wiggle their feelers, take a deep, deep breath, and sing, ‘Here we go, it’s time to glow!’ ” It’s an acceptable change, but more unevenness follows. Lucy’s excitement about finally joining the other bugs turns to “sobbing” two nights in a row. Instead of directly linking her behavior to understandable reactions of children to newness, the text undermines itself by making Lucy’s parents’ sweet reassurances impotent and using the grandmother’s scientific explanation of moonlight as an unnecessary metaphor. Further detracting from the story, the text becomes ever denser and more complex over the book’s short span.
Too many bugs, figuratively. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-84-16147-00-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Cuento de Luz
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
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