Special Section on Children's Books about CATS

A preposterously funny book in both prose and illustration-- the preposterous aspect is that the cats aren’t “really” cats—they’re elephants! For readers of this story about how the owner picked his special kitten (baby elephant) from the litter and then accommodated to its kittenish/elephantine ways, there is much to enjoy and laugh about. First are the illustrations of little tabby, tiger-striped, and polka-dot elephants behaving like cats; second is the deadpan humor that never mentions that the cats are really elephants. Once in its new home, the little kitten/elephant goes through drawers, hassles the goldfish (using its trunk and a net), and snoozes in bed with its owner. And a considerate owner he is: worried that the little one is bored while he’s away, the owner buys his “cat” a toy—a stuffed elephant. Hijinks ensue and the little cat/elephant winds up trading his stuffed toy for a dog’s stuffed carrot. A little zany? You bet—and tremendous fun to read and look at.

A. Allison

Drawing upon his own expertise as an author and illustrator and as owner of “one of the largest collections of picture books in the world,” Cooper Edens adds another fine, unique volume to Chronicle’s series of classic children’s literature illustrated by various artists. Other volumes complied by Edens collect sea stories, Brothers Grimm fairy tales, and princess stories. In this volume, poems about animals, Mother Goose rhymes, Aesop fables, fairy tales, excerpts from long works like Alice in Wonderland, Winnie-the-Pooh, and The Wind in the Willows are luxuriously illustrated by a range or artists using varied artistic techniques.

All the volumes in Chronicle’s series have been outstanding and all are well worth the $20 price, which buys one a work of art, a historical journey through different kinds of children’s stories and artistic sensibilities—and the profound knowledge of Cooper Edens.

A. Allison

Museums like the Getty and the Metropolitan Museum of Art are publishing outstanding books for children in which art on a given theme (like cats) is presented to even the very young, as in this board book. On the left of each of the ten pages, lovely art work with cats is displayed. On the right side the young reader is engaged with questions or playful comments to get discussion going. Art varies from oil painting to manuscript pages to a vase, showing cats in trees, on people’s laps, under the banquet table, and many places elsewhere. This is a fine book for little ones who can learn easily to look closely at and to appreciate art.

The one drawback is that the final two pages where all the information is about the art is printed in white ink on a yellow background, making it very hard to read.

A. Allison

One would expect a work of art in a book from the Metropolitan Museum about baby animals and this book does not disappoint. William Lach, a Senior Editor at the museum, collected various artistic expressions of animal babies from different artists, countries, and periods, displaying varied techniques from yarn, oil, pen and ink to hand-painted lithograph, carved ivory, and painted bark. Each illustration is a lovely work of art accompanied on the facing page by a bit of text identifying the baby animal and providing its childhood appellation, e.g. facing a gorgeous Chinese embroidery of flying bats is “Baby bats are called pups.” The very next page is a French watercolor of a family and the text reads: “Little boys are also baby animals!” As much as introduction to art and its various techniques as a lovely gift or personal volume on family life, this is a very inviting, engaging picturebook that is also a work of art in itself. (Yes, there’s a page saying “Little girls are baby animals.”)

A. Allison

With the opening words “Someday when my cat can talk,” a little girl imagines her cat traveling all over the world and coming home to tell her of his journeys. Each trip is told in a rhyming four-line stanza accompanied by extraordinary artwork, multi-textured and imaginative; some are double-truck, such as the superb street scene of the cat-as-artist admiring his own work in a Montmartre gallery, or enjoying a gondola ride in Venice or lying among the tulips near a Dutch windmill.
Story and art here combine to produce a lovely work of art that is also, yes—a geography lesson, reinforced by the maps of the cat’s travels that appear on the endpapers and in a couple of pages at the end that give some facts about the countries the cat has seen.

A. Allison

Opposites attract, literally, in this very funny book about a wizard and his cat, Poison. Both are bachelors living in dark rooms: “The shutters were always firmly shut against the sun, and the telephone was always unplugged.” The wizard and Poison spend their days watching the tube and “munching cookies.” And then … across from their dingy, dilapidated house a lady moves in and she has a cat too. But they’re the opposites of their grumpy neighbors. Their house is newly renovated and bright, flowers grow there, the lady sings beautifully, and the new cat is a lovely female too. Against their inclinations, the two bachelors become entranced, clean up their act, and join in the singing. The text ends: “And for all we know, they are singing still.”

The story is hilarious, and the illustrations match the mood perfectly, humorously portraying the change from dark to light, solitude to society, silence to music. No wonder LaFrance was nominated for Canada’s prestigious Governor General’s award for illustration. Her collaboration with Levert is a big success.

A. Allison

Can you say “meow” in Greek, Catalan, or Finnish? This playful picturebook provides that and more languages’ words for “meow” on its endpapers, and then opens to quote Colette, “There are no ordinary cats” and Leonardo da Vinci, “The smallest feline is a masterpiece.” Cat lovers everywhere would agree.
Each double-page spread features a breed of cat with delightful descriptions and art. Persians to Scottish Folds are depicted in illustrations built of yarn, felt, jewelry, cut-outs, cotton balls, and even leaves for ears on occasion. As much a celebration of amusing art as an ode to kinds of cats, Hanoch’s book is very funny and unique.
By the way, cats are made of qualities such as “laziness,” “showbiz,” “softness,” and “guts.” Again, cat aficionados would agree.

A. Allison

One of Twenty-first Century Book’s “What a Pet” series that includes picturebooks on choosing and then caring for snakes, fish, dogs, birds, crawly things, and pocket pets, this book on cats as pets is for school age children, as reflected in its format and in the kind of information provided. Breeds of cats are presented alphabetically, from Abyssinian to Manx, Scottish Fold, and The Caracal. A treasury of facts, each cat’s section includes “Fast Facts” and a photo of the breed, and then a page or two or three with print information on origins, anecdotes, temperament, and the care required. Insets provide additional facts, and for each breed Internet resources are included. The back of the book includes a page on what kinds of cats do not make good pets, such as an orphaned Florida panther kitten. An excellent, serious resource for older readers, the Silversteins’ book is a valuable guide for adults as well.

A. Allison

This satisfying story, set at first in an animal adoption center, takes place in one day. Mrs. Cosy is the shelter’s attendant; she and a stripy cat watch as all the other animals are taken to new homes. But no one adopts the stripy cat—he’s either too rambunctious or too timid—there’s always a reason he’s not chosen. Truth be told, the stripy cat has already determined that he doesn’t want to leave Mrs. Cosy, and by the story’s end their attachment is mutual. She takes the cat home with her where she quickly realizes she has adopted the kind of cat most of us look for—a purry cuddler so affectionate, “As trusty as the fastenings on my sneakers,” that she gives him both a permanent home and the name “Velcro.”
Humorous dialog and situations are depicted in expressive, colorful illustrations matched perfectly to the story.

A. Allison

Matthew Van Fleet is well known for several engineered books like this one, including Dogs, Alphabet, Tails, and Fuzzy Yellow Ducklings. Here he collaborates with photographer Brian Stanton on a book of tremendous fun. Each double page has a device for readers to play with—a squeaky ball, a flap, a pull-out tab that makes a cat or two on the page do something like swat a ball of yarn or pop out of a boot. Many kinds of cats are photographed—frumpy cats, frisky cats, hissing cats, nice cats (being friendly to a parrot), naughty cats (caught on camera with paw in goldfish bowl….). From Artistocat to Alley cat, pedigree to wild cat, this romp through felinedom is interactive and very enjoyable.

A. Allison

The story is familiar; a stray cat captures the heart of a potential owner, but the cat won’t come inside. It stays on the front porch only long enough to enjoy the goodies, then runs away. Cumulatively in each scene, the lady provides milk, tuna, catnip, a rug, an armchair, yarn and knitting needles, and eventually builds the cat a wall for scratching and even a fireplace on the porch to entice the cat and gain its trust. But the cat runs away. Finally, in a warm and imaginative ending, the owner’s hospitality is not only rewarded but reciprocated.

The jacket flap tells us that Cynthia von Buhler lives in a castle with “eight cats, six doves, three goldfish, two rats, two koi fish, and her husband, Russell,” surely a promising introduction. Von Buhler is an award-winning artist who, with this book, has for the first time written the text as well done the illustrations. She succeeds with both, an example of the latter being the cover illustration of the book’s cat protagonist. His huge gold eyes look right at you as he sits outside covered with snow.

It’s the multimedia art that makes this book so fascinating. Clay models, photographs, a magnificent dollhouse belonging to the author, help from her family members sewing curtains and hanging wallpaper for the dollhouse, the delightful dollhouse furniture, additional clay animals like birds and a rabbit make this a unique visual treat as well as a finely-written tale.

A. Allison

People in the house where this cat lives keep forgetting to close doors and windows. When that happens (4 times in the story), we get the line “Cat jumped in!”—or a variation; sometimes the cat “crept in” or “snuck in.” However, the result is always the same. Following each refrain come very pleasant pages of the havoc the cat wreaks… in the kitchen, in the closet, in the bedroom (with funny pages when the cat discovers himself in a mirror), and in the artist-owner’s studio. She puts him out after each incident—but he keeps finding those open doors and windows. She ought be fed up with her cat, no? As a wise if unruly cat, he bides his time in the shadows until, “Cautiously, he curled his tail around someone’s ankles.” And when she, his owner, opens her arms to him—he jumps in.

The story itself is delightful; the text mimics the cat’s actions by appearing all over the pages. McCully is a famous illustrator/author; her illustrations (it’s a furry, black-and-white cat) reveal, as does the text, her first-hand experience with and her love for cats. and that affection comes through in the art. The author Weaver is also a cat lover and may well have undergone the incidents with her cats that are depicted in this very pleasing picturebook.

A. Allison