With cat-sized props placed against boldly colored backgrounds—such as a claw-foot bathtub (with gilt cats for feet) just big enough for three kittens—internationally renowned photographer Reinen’s attention-grabbing photos offer cat-lovers their fill of felines at play and rest. What this doesn’t have is a real story, but the day-in-the-life construct gives the author enough of a framework to showcase her intentionally cute photographs, which call to mind William Wegman’s dog pictures. Plot or no, children will nevertheless giggle over the photos of cats doing exactly what they might do themselves on a typical day: eat breakfast, take a bath, and go to school. The real humor comes when children know enough about natural cat behavior to realize that cats do not bathe in bathtubs; that loving to knit does not mean ending up entangled in a skein of mohair yarn; and that being “a big help in the garden” shouldn’t result in flowers sitting next to now-empty flowerpots. The breeds of the pictured felines are identified on the verso of the title page. It is impossible to determine what came first in this effort—the pictures or the text—since many of the photos appear on the author’s Web site. Plenty of adult appeal, especially the stack of books suitable for bedtime stories: World Catlas, Looking Out the Cat Door: A Retrospective, How to Claw Your Way to The Top, and Canaries and You by Bud & Jerry Garr. Cat-lovers may return to this, but others may find that one day is enough. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-316-83342-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Megan Tingley/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
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