Young readers will definitely need help with the lengthy “Keeping Your Cat Safe” afterword, but it only serves to make this...
Inside cat KokoCat finds the outside world dangerous and scary.
KokoCat loves sunbeams and chattering with birds and squirrels—through the window screens. She’s good at naps and keeping clean, like every well-loved indoor kitty. One morning when the door stays open a bit too long, KokoCat makes a break for what she’s seen beyond her window, and no amount of calling from her human gives her pause. She’s not out long before a large orange tomcat attacks her. Though she escapes, she’s hungry. Birds are too fast, so she licks a hamburger wrapper and drinks from a stale puddle. The final insult and injury: a night of rainstorms. KokoCat curls up under a Dumpster, missing her home and her humans. When she hears a familiar voice in the morning, she runs to it, and, after a trip to the vet to attend to her wounds, she is an indoor cat forever. Graham-Barber’s simple tale of an inside cat on the run might not be a bedtime-story choice, but it is a solid informational title on pet care for young cat lovers. Lane’s beautiful, bright watercolors depict an amazing array of emotions on the face of the realistic protagonist.
Young readers will definitely need help with the lengthy “Keeping Your Cat Safe” afterword, but it only serves to make this an even more valuable title. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 15, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-940719-12-5
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Gryphon Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Charming characters, a clever plot and a quiet message tucked inside a humorous tale.
Fuzzy, bearlike creatures of different sizes relate to one another in an amusing story that explores the relative nature of size.
A small purple creature meets a similarly shaped but much larger orange critter. The purple creature maintains that the orange creature is “big”; the orange one counters by calling the purple one “small.” This continues, devolving into a very funny shouting match, pages full of each type of creature hollering across the gutter. This is followed by a show-stopping double-page spread depicting two huge, blue legs and the single word “Boom!” in huge display type. Tiny, pink critters then float down by parachute, further complicating the size comparisons. Eventually, these brightly colored animals learn to see things in a different way. In the end, they decide they are all hungry and trudge off to eat together. The story is told effectively with just a few words per page, though younger readers might need help understanding the size and perspective concepts. Cartoon-style illustrations in ink and watercolor use simple shapes with heavy black outlines set off by lots of white space, with an oversized format and large typeface adding to the spare but polished design. While the story itself seems simple, the concepts are pertinent to several important social issues such as bullying and racism, as well as understanding point of view.
Charming characters, a clever plot and a quiet message tucked inside a humorous tale. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4778-4772-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Two Lions
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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