Customer Reviews

Cat up a Tree

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I collect childrens' books and illustrations, and Stephen Mackey is one of my all-time favorite illustrators. The same sense of mystery and magic that is so at home in his illustrations of fairies adds a particularly special element to his paintings of children and cats. You feel like you're seeing into someone's secret world, even if the events portrayed are mundane, yet you never feel as though you've discovered all of the secrets. As an afficianado of Mackey, I have to say I've been disaapointed in the two major works he's chosen to illustrate -- this book, and the Yolen collection of fairy tales. I think in both cases that the text is not particularly engaging -- too stilted, artificial, and even esoteric for children, but not nuanced or sophisticated enough to be entirely satisfying to adults. Don't buy this book if you want to read a story about cats to a young person; but if you love cats, and if you believe that they know a lot more than we can prove that they know and that they make excellent companions for us, the meager fleshed ones, then I think you might really enjoy sharing the pictures in this book with your child or your over a cup of tea with your feline friend.