True Kelley has illustrated many books for children, including Stay! Keeper's Story by Lois Lowry. She lives with children's author Steven Lindblom and their daughter, Jada, in Warner, New Hampshire. Sara Swan Miller is the author of Three Stories You Can Read To Your Dog, Three Stories You Can Read To Your Cat, Three More Stories You Can Read To Your Dog, Three More Stories You Can Read To Your Cat, and Three Stories You Can Read To Your Teddy Bear.
Gr 2-4‘Three short tales to share with your favorite four-legged companion. The cat survives the tedium of "The Rainy Day" by napping, washing every body part imaginable, waiting for food to fall from the table, and finally willing the weather to clear. "The Yummy Bug" is stalked, captured, consumed, and eventually spit out as awful-tasting. Good behavior is in the eye of the beholder in the final story, when the frisky feline shreds the curtains, nibbles on a plant, and overturns the garbage before curling up and thinking, "My friend will by happy. I did not do one bad thing." Both words and pictures capture the contrary, persnickety, independent nature of these beloved animals. Written with a light touch, the humorous tales read aloud nicely. From the endpapers, decorated with a variety of breeds, to the clever borders that set off each chapter, the watercolor-and-ink illustrations are filled with amusing details. The gray-and-white feline featured in the pictures has quite a repertoire of expressions, ranging from pointedly disinterested to openly disdainful to perfectly contented. A delightful read for literate pets and their humans.‘Joy Fleishhacker, School Library Journal
Shy, bold, and feisty by turns, Kelley's cat is positively purrfect
as it stalks and capers its way through three episodes that depict
a feline's winning ways. Pictures catch a range of emotions--from a
sly stare when Kitty sees a tempting bug to a self-satisfied gleam
after it has spent a wonderful day doing naughty things. Miller's
stories, written using the pronominal you (One day you [the cat]
woke up early), are funny as well as easy to read, making them
great for new chapter-book readers, especially ones who have cats
to cozy up with.
Booklist, ALA
Miller and Kelley follow up their clever Three Stories You Can Read to Your Dog with a blithe feline equivalent. Each of three stories includes animated descriptions of prowling and yowling, told in the second person as though a housecat were both main character and willing audience. "The Rainy Day" portrays a restless protagonist on a wet morning: "You went to sit under the dining room table. `Maybe some food will fall,' you said to yourself. `Sometimes food does that.' " The next entry, "The Yummy Bug," details the suspenseful pursuit of a spotted beetle. And the ironic "The Good Day" finds the hero trying to "be good" by gnawing a houseplant ("`Mmmmm,' you said to yourself. `That was very, very good' ") and excavating the kitchen trash (" `This is better than good,' you said. `This is GREAT!' "). Miller employs snappy sentences, a keen eye for kitty foibles and a quirky wit. Kelley's uncomplicated pen-and-ink and watercolor images show an attention to familiar cat poses; a pampered and plump gray cat crouches, bathes itself, climbs curtains and sharpens its claws. Even if cats don't deign to sit through a reading, this chapter book (like its canine companion volume) provides plenty of amusement for humans. Ages 7-10. (Mar.)
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