Me and My Cat? [Hardcover]

Satoshi Kitamura (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up | Grade Level: P and up

A Freaky Friday for younger kids -- and with an extra twist

Late one night Nicholas sees a witch enter his bedroom and hears her say some magic words. Then the witch leaves without even saying goodbye. When he wakes up the next morning, it doesn't take him long to realize something very strange is going on - especially when he pulls at his whiskers and watches himself go off to school. Whiskers? How confusing! That nasty witch cast the old switcheroo spell on him, and Nicholas has swapped bodies with his cat, Leonardo. Needless to say, quite an unusual day is in store for both Nicholas-inside-Leonardo and Leonardo-inside-Nicholas, and Satoshi Kitamura catalogues their misadventures in fantastically funny pictures.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Although not as unpredictable as his hard-boiled Sheep in Wolves' Clothing, this latest by Kitamura spotlights an offbeat sense of humor and a flair for comic-book layout. At first, it appears as though a dark-haired boy, Nicholas, narrates the story, while his yellow cat sits quietly in the foreground. But at breakfast, Nicholas buries his head in a cat-food dish until his mother "carr[ies] me off to catch the school bus. I had gone... but I was still here." Only then does Nicholas realize that he and his cat have exchanged physical identities. The "real" Nicholas, in the cat's body, spends the day accidentally toppling furniture and battling the tomcats next door. "Life was as complicated and tough as it was for humans," he discovers. Kitamura devotes several amusing spreads to imagining how a cat would inhabit a human body and vice versa. He contains these chaotic scenes in a tense, tightly controlled black-ink line and tints them with lush midnight-violet, fern-green and golden-ochre watercolors. "An old lady in a pointed hat" solves the dilemma in a conventional way, but the tale provides entertainmentAparticularly on the repetitive panels in which the boy wears a cat's impenetrable, miffed expression. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 3-Prior to the title page, an old lady with a broom and a pointy black hat is pictured crawling through a boy's window at night. The caption explains that she "brandished her broom at me and fired out some words. Then she left without saying goodbye-." The next day, Nicholas discovers that he has switched bodies with his cat Leonardo. What results is a humorous set of learning experiences about the life of a cat and, for poor Leonardo, the life of a boy. By the time the old woman returns the next night-"Sorry, love. I got the wrong address"-both victims, as well as the protagonist's frazzled mother, are anxious to return to normal. The twist on the last page is wickedly delightful, as are the expressive pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations. Facial expressions speak volumes, and the sense of kinetic movement and moments caught in a series of "snapshots" (on two consecutive spreads) will pull in the most diffident listeners. The high humor is infectious and the entire clever premise is well executed. Use this title with David Small's Imogene's Antlers (Crown, 1988) or William Joyce's George Shrinks (HarperCollins, 1985) for wonderful stories about strange transformations.
Ann Welton, Terminal Park Elementary School, Auburn, WA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR); 1st edition (March 6, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374349061
• ISBN-13: 978-0374349066
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,654,148 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars an enjoyable book, June 5, 2003

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Me and My Cat? (Hardcover)

Though i have not read this book,i have watched the video from the SAG bookpals online site.It was read by Elijah Wood,my favorite actor.It was an enjoyable book,great for little kids.

...

5.0 out of 5 stars The Cat's Meow!, January 20, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Me and My Cat? (Hardcover)

This book is a delight! Wonderful quirky illustrations! Very imaginative and funny! All the more enjoyable if you actually have a cat (but fun for Dog Lover's too!)

5.0 out of 5 stars Dazed and confused, November 7, 2002

By 

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang "historian and futurist" (Menlo Park, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Me and My Cat? (Hardcover)

Satoshi Kitamura is the Kazuo Ishiguro of the under-5 set. "ME and my Cat" is of my daughter's favorite books, and she's a serious fan of Kitamura's oeuvre. A great book when they've outgrown "Duck Is Dirty" and other board books.