By: Garrison Keillor
Paintings by: Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher
I was constantly thrown off guard while reading this story because everything that happened was very unexpected. I feel as though there is a very strong underlying message in this story direct toward those who feel as though they must be in the spot light at all times. This message, however, is hidden beneath cat characters. Yes, literally the pet cat you all are thinking about. The author creatively uses cats as main characters rather than humans, and by doing this Keillor is able to sugar coat the theme... make it a little softer and hidden.
I feel as though this book would be well-suited for children in 3rd-6th grade. The language is a little complex and it may take some experience to understand what the underlying theme of the story is. In fact, speaking of complex language, there were a handful of times when I simply had to sound out a word or, if the word was a name, acknowledge it and then skip it all together. Due to this tougher language, this book may prove to be beneficial to use for a vocabulary lesson.
In conclusion I enjoyed this picture book because it is unlike any other book that I have read thus far. It is written with a rhyming scheme and flows like a poem. The illustrations are page-filling and rather dark. I recommend reading this book :)
No comments:
Post a Comment