Customer Reviews

The Fat Cat Sat on the Mat (I Can Read Book 1)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

This book uses words like "hate" and "stupid". These words are wholly unacceptable in a book meant for children aged pre-K to first grade.

The Fat Cat Sat on the Mat is a great book for beginning readers. My grand daughter reads it several times each day. The story if fun, the illustrations attractive, and the choice of words encourages readers to continue their journey through the book. Most of the words can be deciphered by very early readers; the rest can be figured out through story context. I highly recommend this book.

I purchased this book because of the good reviews here, but I am afraid that I have to disagree with popular opinion. The characters in this story are rude, inconsiderate, and just plain do not get along. The story is about a cat and a rat who are pets of a witch. The rat seems to be portrayed as the favored pet and the book states that the rat hates the cat and the cat doesn't care. When the witch leaves, the cat leaves the vat and goes to sit on the mat, which is believed to be the rat's mat. The rat tells him to move (not politely at all) and when the cat does not move, the rat's friends (a bat and a hat) join the rat in bullying the cat to move. They also try to entice him off of the mat with a fish. The cat (beligerently) will not leave the mat until the witch comes home and asks the rat "what makes you think it is YOUR mat?" at which point the cat (arrogantly and victoriously) smiles and returns to the vat.

The words are simple and rhyme, the bulk of them fitting into the -at family, but the behaviors displayed in this story are just plain bad and there are no repercussions for them. We try to teach our children positive behaviors that support getting along with one another. I prefer that my children read examples of good behavior rather than behaviors that I would not want them to exhibit.

My wife and I bought a bunch of books in the I Can Read series. One of the books was "The Fat Cat Sat on the Mat". I started reading it to my 22 month old son tonight before bed and stopped as I quickly realized the extremely ugly language. How did this book get past the editor/publisher HarperCollins and also the author didn't realize the audience? This book should be pulled from the shelf. See below for some examples:

"The rat hates the cat. The cat does not care. The cat, who is fat, .... The rat hates that."
The witch has a pet rat called "the little brat"

"Then I will go and get my bat, said the rat. It will get you off the mat. No it won't, said the cat."
"You think I am stupid, said the cat..."

Again, it's a shame that we wasted an evening reading this hateful, negative book. This will be returned to the store with a complaint to the bookseller and also I'll write the publisher.

Please vote with your dollar and do not support this.

Thanks,
Brian

It's amazing that, with so few and simple words, the author has written a story where the characters all have motive and personality, and the plot is interesting. The humorous twist at the end is great!

Good things:
* Longer and slightly more complex story than most reading books
* Humorous plot with twists (I love how the rat is going to get a bat to get the cat off the mat and it turns out to be a flying bat as opposed to a baseball bat.)
* good rhyming
* my 4 year olds are just starting to grasp reading and this book and its many *at words was just about at their level and appealing enough that they were making an effort

Negative:
* I wish the characters were not so rude (I do think kids can distinguish between appropriate behavior and behavior that needs correcting). Giving them only model behavior is unrealistic and sometimes boring. However, in this book it will be up to you to reinforce any lessons about rudeness.
* I prefer not to have books about witches.

For me the positives outweighed the negatives enough to seriously consider buying it.

The only thing in this book useful for learning reading is the title. The rest of the book is filled with too many quotations, non-words like rat-a-tat, and inappropriate words like hate and stupid.

Very clever wordplay and -- as many previous reviewers have noted -- young children will be able to memorize the rhymes and recite the book before they can actually read. Much to the delight of parents!

If your child likes this book, I would recommend "Down on the Funny Farm" by P.E.King as a follow-up. It was a natural transition for my three kids. The two books share a similar playfulness and humor, although I think "Down on the Funny Farm" has a little more staying power with the children. My youngest has been reading "Funny Farm" for over a year now and she still counts it as one of her favorites. Enjoy!

This book is great for introducing reading to youngsters. There is a period when kids start to read when their frustration level is high because they don't know as many words on the page as they would like.

This book eases the entrance into book reading by use of rhyme and repeating phrases. All a child has to do is master the base word ("cat") and the many rhymes that are used are easy from that point.

My five year old pointed with great pride to the book after he had read it -- it has encouraged his efforts.

I was very excited to see a book with "-at" words, because my daughter was learning to sound them out. But this book is not appropriate for the preschool age it is geared toward! It has words like brat and stupid, which I do NOT want my daughter saying. If there was free return shipping, I'd return it. If you are raising nice, polite children, stay away from this book.