Customer Reviews

Someday When My Cat Can Talk

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

 

 

In this charming picture book, a little girl imagines what her cat does when he wanders off at night, and she imagines what he'd tell her about his adventures if he could talk. So what does this cat do? He goes on a European Adventure of course! In verse, the girl chronicles her cat's adventures in England, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Greece, and Holland.

Here's what she has to say about his trip to Spain:


"He'll talk about events in Spain--
like bullfights every spring.
And he'll praise himself for stopping one
by jumping in the ring.

He'll relive the Spanish soccer games
when he played just like a pro
and all the senoritas yelled,
Que Magnifico! "


In the book, a valiant-looking cat is standing in the middle of a bull ring, holding his arms out while a perplexed matador and bull look down on him. On the other side, the cat is dressed in a soccer uniform while ladies cheer him on in the stands.


Kyrsten Brooker's rich and whimsical illustrations give the book an "old-world" feel and take readers back to another place and time.


Caroline Lazo's words just roll off your tongue and will captivate children who are hearing the book read aloud to them.

In the back of the book, readers can learn more about each country the cat visits, and the end papers depict a map of his adventure.

A book that celebrates imagination and teaches kids a little about geography and other countries, this book makes an excellent choice for plain-old read aloud fun!

In a little girl's fantasy her cat leads a secret life only she knows about - from visiting distant lands in Europe to winning an art award for an artistic mousetrap rewiring job or visiting the seashore. Whimsical drawings illustrate a gentle geography guide following a cat's many lives.

This children's picturebook might try to do a little too much all at once -- is it a book about kittycats, or about European travel? The "hook" in the title is that, when her cat learns to talk, he'll tell her all about his world (preferably in rhyme...) That's all very well and fine, but then, after a few pages of telling her about dogs and flowers and fish, the cat jumps a ship and goes abroad on a whirlwind tour of Europe with cute little couplets for each destination - England, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Greece. The artwork (from Kyrsten Brooker, whose work I like a lot) helps bring the text alive, but the story is muddled. It's also not particularly cat-oriented, when you come down to it: he runs an Olympic torch relay, goes in for bullfighting, etc., but his feline nature mostly gets lost in the mix. The concept might work for some folks (cat loving parents about to take Junior overseas on the Grand Tour?) but others might get a little lost in the rush to pack in so many ideas all at once.