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PARIS CAT

Name: PARIS CAT
Author: Leslie Baker
ISBN: 0-316-07309-1

by Leslie Baker ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1999

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Soft, splashy watercolors with that medium’s traditional luminosity limn the streets, markets, parks, and boulevards of Paris, as a calico cat, Alice, searches for her owner, Annie, who is visiting a great-aunt, Isabella. Alice sees a mouse in Great-Auntie Isabella’s garden on the first day of her first trip to Paris, and races after it; soon, she is lost in the city. Alice strolls the market, loses a stray fish to a tomcat, is chased by one of the city’s innumerable dogs and lands on a bateau-mouche when she falls off a bridge (a wordless spread of the fall is realistically and kinetically rendered). Tired, Alice at last falls asleep in a bed of tulips, to be found by Annie and her aunt. The Louvre and Notre Dame form a pleasant backdrop to Baker’s close observations of feline behavior. Annie, in her navy knee socks and beret, is just as appealing as her troublesome pet. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: April 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-316-07309-1

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS

- BOOK REVIEW
THE ANIMAL ABC
by Leslie Baker & illustrated by Leslie Baker

- BOOK REVIEW
CATS OF MYTH
by Gerald Hausman & Loretta Hausman & illustrated by Leslie Baker

- BOOK REVIEW
RABBIT AND THE MOON
by Douglas Wood & illustrated by Leslie Baker

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QUACK AND COUNT

by Keith Baker & illustrated by Keith Baker ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1999

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Baker (Big Fat Hen, 1994, etc.) engages in more number play, posing ducklings in every combination of groups, e.g., “Splashing as they leap and dive/7 ducklings, 2 plus 5.” Using a great array of streaked and dappled papers, Baker creates a series of leafy collage scenes for the noisy, exuberant ducklings to fill, tucking in an occasional ladybug or other small creature for sharp-eyed pre-readers to spot. Children will regretfully wave goodbye as the ducks fly off in neat formation at the end of this brief, painless introduction to several basic math concepts. (Picture book. 4-6)

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-15-292858-8

Page Count: 24

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

- BOOK REVIEW
LMNO PEA-QUEL
by Keith Baker ; illustrated by Keith Baker

- BOOK REVIEW
HAP-PEA ALL YEAR
by Keith Baker ; illustrated by Keith Baker

- BOOK REVIEW
LITTLE GREEN PEAS
by Keith Baker ; illustrated by Keith Baker

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DORY STORY

by Jerry Pallotta ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2000

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Who is next in the ocean food chain? Pallotta has a surprising answer in this picture book glimpse of one curious boy. Danny, fascinated by plankton, takes his dory and rows out into the ocean, where he sees shrimp eating those plankton, fish sand eels eating shrimp, mackerel eating fish sand eels, bluefish chasing mackerel, tuna after bluefish, and killer whales after tuna. When an enormous humpbacked whale arrives on the scene, Danny’s dory tips over and he has to swim for a large rock or become—he worries’someone’s lunch. Surreal acrylic illustrations in vivid blues and red extend the story of a small boy, a small boat, and a vast ocean, in which the laws of the food chain are paramount. That the boy has been bathtub-bound during this entire imaginative foray doesn’t diminish the suspense, and the facts Pallotta presents are solidly researched. A charming fish tale about the one—the boy—that got away. (Picture book. 4-8)