Amazon.com Review
Julie Andrews Edwards is probably best known for her stunning role in
The Sound of Music, but the truth is, she's been thrilling readers since 1971 with her splendid children's books
Mandy and
The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles. Edwards wrote her first children's book for her daughter when she lost a bet--for which the book was the payoff. Now, nearly 30 years later, we're delighted that Edwards has put pen to paper again with
Little Bo: The Story of Bonnie Boadicea.
This gentle story begins when Sarabande, Mrs. Edge's champion Persian cat, has a litter of kittens. Not, mind you, prize-winning kittens, but kittens born to the proud, handsome alley cat Bounder. Unwelcome, unwanted, the kittens narrowly escape a watery end--and that's where Little Bo's adventures begin. The tiniest, most beautiful kitten of the litter is named by her father for Boadicea, a fearless warrior queen. But Bo isn't feeling too brave or regal when she, separated from her brothers and sisters on a cold winter's night, wails "a long, miserable cry that came from her heart." Happily, her cry is answered by a friendly, warm-hearted young sailor named Billy Bates who falls in love with her wide, violet eyes.
Bo knows better than to leave his side, so she stows away in the captain's cabin and sets sail with him on the Red Betsy where she begins her life as a ship's cat. Her adventures--stormy and dangerous as they are--make for a sweet, suspenseful tale of friendship and loyalty. Illustrator Henry Cole (of Jack's Garden and Livingstone Mouse) infuses life and emotion into Edwards's already thoroughly charming story. (Ages 8 and older, younger for reading aloud) --Karin Snelson
From Publishers Weekly
Edwards's (The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles) sliver of a tale traces the adventures of a small gray cat named Boadicea, "Bo" for short. Wealthy Mrs. Edith Edge is mortified to discover that a black stray has fathered the six kittens born from her pedigree white cat ("Can you imagine what the ladies at the Cat Association would say if they knew about this," she says). Save for oneAthe spitting image of her motherAshe plans to toss them out on their furry ears. But first, the sextet of felines goes on an excursion with their mother to meet their father, who prophetically names the tiniest of the litter Boadicea: "She was a great warrior queen, brave and fearless." After a few brushes with danger, Bo finds a home with Billy, a first mate on a fishing trawler (who names her Bonnie, "Bo" for short). Though Bo is responsible for several turning points in the novel (a bike collision that saves her and her siblings from being drowned in the river; Billy's departure from the boat), her personality remains oddly undefined. In Cole's (Livingstone Mouse) full-page paintings, which open each chapter, and spot illustrations, his portraits of the kittens are charming. But he often opts for a rear view of the human and animal characters even in pivotal scenes, which distances readers from the action. Still, children will come away with the moral that, like Bo, their size may be small, but they can accomplish big things. Ages 8-up. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
