The enticing cover is a perfect example of an effective, visual page turn, as a black-and-white cat carrying a brown case pussyfoots toward the right edge. Open the book, and a beautiful, wordless narrative begins on the endpapers. The cat opens the wooden box, which is filled with paints and brushes, and starts to paint over the dreary, desolate space littered with tin cans and broken bottles where he lives. Each spread adds a helpful creature that also plies a paintbrush and adds details to the picture: a cardinal, rabbit, squirrel, turtle and even a mouse. The final scene is a lush, lovely pond under a cloud-studded blue sky with some beautiful red roses for the cat to smell. Preschoolers will grin with delight as each page turn reveals something new in the evolving panorama. Accomplished with panache, a warm palette and quiet drama, the subtle message and charm of this wordless transformation make it a perfect companion to Leo Lionni’s Frederick. This cat? Way cool! (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-59643-429-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2009
Told from the unusual first-person point of view of a birdhouse, this picture book begins with the arresting announcement, “I am a birdhouse,” over a picture of a birdhouse sporting a For Rent sign. Below, at a discreet distance, sits an intensely interested party: a cat. The stage is set. As the birdhouse waits, the seasons progress, birds fly past without interest, and some unsatisfactory renters move in: wasps and chipmunks. Finally, to the birdhouse’s delight, a chickadee moves in and lays eggs, three of which are stolen by the canny cat. When the rest of the chickadees are strong enough, they fly safely away. Bringing the story full circle, the birdhouse is for rent once more, with the farm cat still lurking—but much closer than in the first scene. The expressionistic paintings add much to this simple drama in nature. Using a saturated palette, as rich as melted crayons, the illustrator keeps the golden-yellow birdhouse, its color echoed in the stripe of the tiger cat, at the center of most paintings. Its round door is eye-like as it watches alertly for prospective tenants in the outside world and overlooks the chickadee family once they have settled in and their eggs have hatched. Interior perspectives of the birdhouse fill the page with nest, eggs, and subsequently plump baby birds. The drama is heightened by a view of one large cat’s eye peering in at the tempting, unprotected eggs. The only barrier to the story’s guaranteed success is presented on the first page when the rental birdhouse declares, “As you can see, I am vacant. I have no tenants.” The youngest children, who might enjoy the story, may have little grasp of the concepts of rental, vacancy, and tenants. But the seductive art makes it more than worthwhile to explain. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-618-04881-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Walter Lorraine/Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sly snake with a fondness for sneaking up on unsuspecting animals and making them jump earns both humiliation and a taste of its own medicine in this nearly wordless outing—dedicated “to bullies everywhere.” Having frazzled a passing bird, a ground squirrel and a family of opossums, Snake inadvertently swallows a duck and, suddenly only able to quack rather than hiss, not only draws ridicule from other snakes, but attracts a huge flock of other ducks. Ultimately, the first duck climbs out, and Snake happily watches the flock depart—unaware of one remaining bird who is drawing breath to emit a huge “QUACK.” Drawn with the bright orange snake and variously colored other animals suspended in small, blank cartoon panels, this is too purposeful to make much impression on dedicated bullies—but it’s just silly enough that it may give their victims some vicarious satisfaction and a great belly laugh. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-8037-3093-4
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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