Miller and Kelley (Three Stories You Can Read to Your Cat, not reviewed, etc.) return with what has become a solidly entertaining formula for children in transition from early readers to chapter books. A second-person text addresses its protagonist, the cat of the title, as it makes its way with feline superiority through three chapters. In “Happy Birthday,” the cat’s well-meaning owner presents a series of wholly unacceptable gifts—but the rustling wrapping paper makes a big hit. The “Funny White Stuff” turns out to be much more appealing from inside the window than outside, and “Breakfast Time” itself is anticlimactic compared to the fun of waking one’s owner. The gently ironic text always preserves the cat’s-eye view—“A nap was much more interesting than a dead mouse”—and the energetic ink-and-watercolor illustrations continue this conceit by picturing the cat’s human as only a set of hands or a pair of “clumping” feet. The illustrations vary nicely in size and placement, at all times keeping the text from overwhelming the newly independent reader, and capturing their subject in all moods, from disgruntlement to playfulness to full supine glory. Cat-owning children will instantly recognize the true dynamic of the relationship, and all children should enjoy the good humor that pervades this offering, which instructs readers in the introduction: “remember to pet your cat while you read.” (Easy reader. 6-9)
Pub Date: March 25, 2002
ISBN: 0-618-11035-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2002
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
Rylant (Henry and Mudge and the Sneaky Crackers, 1998, etc.) slips into a sentimental mode for this latest outing of the boy and his dog, as she sends Mudge and Henry and his parents off on a camping trip. Each character is attended to, each personality sketched in a few brief words: Henry's mother is the camping veteran with outdoor savvy; Henry's father doesn't know a tent stake from a marshmallow fork, but he's got a guitar for campfire entertainment; and the principals are their usual ready-for-fun selves. There are sappy moments, e.g., after an evening of star- gazing, Rylant sends the family off to bed with: ``Everyone slept safe and sound and there were no bears, no scares. Just the clean smell of trees . . . and wonderful green dreams.'' With its nice tempo, the story is as toasty as its campfire and swaddled in Stevenson's trusty artwork. (Fiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-689-81175-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1998
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