Customer Reviews

Comet's Nine Lives

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I love this book! Our cat is also named "Comet", but I would have loved it anyway. Comet lives on Nantucket Island and loses one life after another in this scary world ruled by dogs. Finally, when on her last life, she discovers a lighthouse where a lonely cat is waiting for a friend, and knows she is home. The illustrations are just incredibly beautiful. If you love the sea, lighthouses, and cats, you will love this book!

As always, the drawings by Jan Brett are amazing. The detail shows just how deeply she researches all of her subjects before starting a project.

This story follows Comet, and adventure-seeking cat on Nantucket who manages to find trouble wherever he goes and quickly uses up his "nine lives" before he finds a wonderful home at the lighthouse.

For those who have trouble with the idea of Comet "dying" over and over again, try explaining to your children what the phrase "nine lives" means. Obviously no cat has nine lives, but anyone who has cats, as we do, knows that cats have lots of near misses. When we read this book we do not look at them as deaths, but mearly close calls.

A great story to follow along with the fantastic illustrations.

As usual, Jan Brett's art is much better than the story.
But gosh, the drawings of shells and different scenes---you know the main scene thing she does, then the side scene about other things that are going on simultaneously, is awesome.
The characters are all dogs and cats, which children love. The kids will love the art and so will you.
Comet loses his eight of his lives quickly, but Hurricane Elmadore washes him at the feet of the lighthouse cat. He chooses to spend his ninth with her. Thats the cutest part of the story.

Jan Brett's "Comet" is my daughter's favorite book -- She carries it everywhere! At 2.5 years it's sometimes hard to make the grown-ups understand what you want but it's not hard when you have the "Comet" book ever at the ready for a spontaneous "read-to-me" session. This book has accompanied her to South Carolina, North Carolina and California. It went to the Antique Road Show, the Washington Zoo and the neighborhood pool. Unfortunately, on one of its travels, she lost it! (Hopefully, some other little girl or boy is now enjoying it!)Yesterday she got up in my lap, looked me in the eye and said "Comet Book GONE! Its okay -- we get New One?"

Just like Comet had nine lives, I think she is sure there is another copy of the book just waiting for her. And, there is!Buy this book -- the your child will love it!

This was my and my son's first Jan Brett book and it won't be our last! We bought it on vacation on Cape Cod, and even though the story was about Nantucket, we were thrilled with how well it evoked the various sides of beach town living. So different than all the other "beach books" out there. It doesn't hurt that my son is a cat freak, so of course we were very interested in all the ways that Comet the cat chose to explore the sea town. I paused a bit before buying this book, worried about having to explain "death" to my son in the context of Comet's having nine lives, but I found that it didn't bother him or me, he was able to understand that the nine lives were meant humorously.

The illustrations are nicely complex, and they still provide much to look at even though my son has already committed the text to memory.

We'll be trying Jan Brett's Christmas books next. (Update -- The Christmas books are nowhere near as much fun as Comet. They seem like they come from a different author entirely).

Comet's 9 lives is just an absolutely beautifully illustrated book! I've been to Nantucket and Jan Brett captures the island beautifully! I love taking the time and really looking at each picture. Again, I can not praise Jan Brett enought! What a terrific author and illustrator! And on top of that the book has a happy ever after for Comet the Cat!

Although this book is excellent just for pure reading enjoyment, it is so much more fun when accomplanied by Jan Brett's "letter" regarding the book. You can find this under books on...She has hidden so many wonderful things! It gets kids interested in shells and nautical flags and problem solving! As a mother, my son and I enjoyed searching for the nantucket red cloth hidden in the book. As a teacher, my students love leaning about codes and the nautical flags. A must have for all!

This book goes through the first eight lives of Comet, a cat who lives on Nantucket Island. Comet wakes up after losing his eighth life where a storm has washed him into the doorway of a lighthouse. A friendly cat is looking at him and purring. On Comet's last life, he finds a friend and knows where he wants to spend the rest of his ninth life.

Teacher Notes: Jan Brett's borders in this book are all ocean-related. The illustrations are wonderful. Before reading this book you would need to explain about the saying that cats have nine lives.

This book is a humorous tale about a cat, named "Comet", that tries to find a place to live and fit in. Comet runs into a bit of trouble and loses eight of his nine lives over the length of his journey. It seems the town is ran by dogs with hilariously funny illustrations of them in humanistic situations and attire. Jan Brett is a great writer and illustrator of childrens' books! She is well known amoungst parents for her sweetly detailed illustrations. This book will definately impress not only children, but parents and teachers alike. My son finds the dogs, in the story, dressed as humans very comical along with the situations only a cat could run into.

As the synopsis indicates, this book is about a cat that dies 8 times before it finds it's life-to-be whle he is living the ninth. There's a little angel-like picture of the cat with angel wings leaving each time the cat dies. It's interesting but oftentimes, I think a little much for the toddlers. There's a bunch of info in this book that makes it fun to discover and explore and actually, I think the artwork is better than the actual story. The idea behind this is good, but I think I agree with the other reviewers that more and equal focus should be placed on the story itself, and not just in the illustrations. My favorite part is seeing what's going on behind the scenes in the illustrations alongside the pages.

It's a nice book but maybe look for another one of Brett's books if you're reading this to a toddler. It's not as entertaining as say her Gingerbread Baby book.