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CATILDA by John Stadler

CATILDA

by John Stadler & illustrated by John Stadler

Pub Date: Feb. 1st, 2003
ISBN: 0-689-84728-9
Publisher: Atheneum

Reminiscent of John Burningham’s classic Come Away From the Water, Shirley (1977) and other stories in which the text and pictures tell very different tales, this pairs a hushed conversation between never-seen parents and a child’s silent, adventure-filled sojourn over the ocean to reclaim a left-behind teddy bear. While her parents talk about looking in on her, little nightgown-clad Catilda pads outside, hitches rides on a pelican and other passers-by all the way to the Statue of Liberty, rescues her teddy from the cat-eared Lady’s lamp, then has an equally adventurous trip home, snuggling back into bed in the nick of time. Stadler (What’s So Scary?2001, etc.) uses multiple layers of watercolor to achieve unusual depth of hue in his flat, uncomplicated compositions, and his intrepid young cat makes frequent eye contact with viewers to draw them irresistibly into the action. Deceptively simple at first glance, this suspenseful episode will keep a surprising range of readers rapt. (Picture book. 4-8)