It's an idea to capture a child's fancy, and touch a cat-lover's heart—with a measured, word-wise text satisfying to...
Or, why cats eat rats—quietly and effectively adapted from a West Indian folk tale by an accomplished compiler/illustrator (The Ox of the Wonderful Horns, Beat the Story-Drum, Pum-Pum).
This is a smallish volume (5 3/4 x 7 3/8), with russet crayon drawings of a droll dignity that itself compels attention. We first see Cat and Mouse as big and little trousered workmates, and "the best of friends." ("Uh-huh, uh-huh, they really were!") But Mouse is given to copying Cat, and when Cat's old uncle presents him with a tiny cat drum, "passed down in the family," Mouse is disgruntled at hearing he can't play it. ("I made my hut like yours, squeak, squee-eee. I played in the shade of your coconut tree. . .") So he devises a scheme to get hold of the drum—first stuffing himself with food, then feigning sickness when it's time to to out and work. But Cat, hoeing, hears the drum's purrum, purrum, purrum (a sound that, neatly, grows louder the more lightly the drum is stoked) and he eventually catches Rat out. That wily fellow saves himself by plunging the drum into Cat's open mouth—and, we're told, it has lodged safely in Cat's stomach ever since. "If you're kind to Cat," Bryan concludes—with a fetching drawing of a little boy and a big house-cat—"he'll let you play his drum. Remember, though, don't tap it or beat it, don't rap it or poke it. Just stroke Cat gently, very, very gently. Uh-huh, uh-huh!"
It's an idea to capture a child's fancy, and touch a cat-lover's heart—with a measured, word-wise text satisfying to read or read aloud. (Picture book/folktale. 4-8)Pub Date: March 12, 1985
ISBN: 002179510X
Page Count: 52
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1985
PERSPECTIVES
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions.
Ellis, known for her illustrations for Colin Meloy’s Wildwood series, here riffs on the concept of “home.”
Shifting among homes mundane and speculative, contemporary and not, Ellis begins and ends with views of her own home and a peek into her studio. She highlights palaces and mansions, but she also takes readers to animal homes and a certain famously folkloric shoe (whose iconic Old Woman manages a passel of multiethnic kids absorbed in daring games). One spread showcases “some folks” who “live on the road”; a band unloads its tour bus in front of a theater marquee. Ellis’ compelling ink and gouache paintings, in a palette of blue-grays, sepia and brick red, depict scenes ranging from mythical, underwater Atlantis to a distant moonscape. Another spread, depicting a garden and large building under connected, transparent domes, invites readers to wonder: “Who in the world lives here? / And why?” (Earth is seen as a distant blue marble.) Some of Ellis’ chosen depictions, oddly juxtaposed and stripped of any historical or cultural context due to the stylized design and spare text, become stereotypical. “Some homes are boats. / Some homes are wigwams.” A sailing ship’s crew seems poised to land near a trio of men clad in breechcloths—otherwise unidentified and unremarked upon.
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6529-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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