Customer Reviews

Top Cat

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

 

 

"Read Top Cat, Mommie!" is what I hear every night now. It's simply my 3 ½ year-old daughter's favorite book. The story of Top Cat, a bored black and white cat, whose sleepy existence is interrupted when a striped kitten arrives from the animal shelter. Top Cat entertains with appealing rhymes, realistic cat behavior (but nothing too scary for a child!), and creative artwork that seems to be made up of overlaid paper cuts. I think my daughter likes how Top Cat first fights with the kitten, but then plays with him, teaching him all sorts of "naughty" kitty behavior - dancing on the table, eating plants, drinking from the faucet, etc. At the end, the two cats are best buds, and that's what counts. A great lesson.

My infant son loves this book! It has delightful, brightly colored illustrations, a catchy rhyme, and for me, a humorous look at two cats learning to share living quarters.

The underlying message of sharing and getting along seems well-suited for a preschooler as well.

I initially got this book from the library for my 2 1/2 year old. She was amused enough, but my husband and I were delighted with the illustrations and creative text layout. It's one book of our daughter's of which he and I haven't grown bored. I'm buying this as a gift for my friends' kids who are expecting the arrival of a sibling - might be some interesting similarities :^)

I am a preschool teacher and my kids love this book. When I first read it I was reminded of my own two cats, and then I realized what a great lesson it would be for my class. The cats do some funny things in it as the older cat teaches the younger cat all the "tricks of the trade"...so it is humorous as well as teaching acceptance and love.

I purchased Top Cat along with a book called Julius, The Baby of the World after reading a list of books that deal well with sibling rivalry issues. Although Top Cat is about cats rather than humans, I am far more impressed with this book than I am with Julius. There was so much negative behavior in Julius that I am afraid to read it to my 3 1/2 year old. Top Cat's strength here is the feline subjects. The book gives children an outlet for some of their own emotions without doing so in an overt way. Having four cats in my household and knowing exactly what they are capable of, I was not at all disturbed by the book's portrayal of cats.

I am not always a fan of this author's books, but in this case, she succeeds completely! This is the story of a cat who is king of his home, but who suddenly has to deal with a new kitten moving in. The cat reacts exactly how a cat would, and I can say that from having witnessed this kind of situation many times! At first there is fighting, but before long, the Top Cat gets down to the business of showing the kitten what cats do---leaving hair all over the couch, sneaking outside to scare birds and, this one is brilliant, drinking water from the faucet when there is company visiting! Cats always do the thing that will upset non-cat-lovers when they have that kind of audience. The pictures are lively and interesting, and there are little words showing the sounds that are going on in each picture. I loved the cover even, with the toy mouse hanging from the Top Cat's mouth.

As a side note, my 4 year old is autistic and rarely likes books unless she's had them around for months. However, she liked this one from the start. We read it about 10 times yesterday, and she liked it more each time. I think the pictures had the right combination of detail and simplicity, and we have cats, so she related!

My 10 month old son does not want to read any other book except Top Cat. He tries petting the cats on the pages. He is in love with this book. I have to order another copy as our first is almost destroyed.

As another reviewer said, Top Cat does include some violence (where one cat defends its territory), but ends with friendship and acceptance. If you've owned cats, its very realistic on how an established cat would treat a new cat.

I call it cat scanning! I think it was very exciting, we read it in my second grade class.

I recommend it for those in second and third grades. Enjoy.

I have some of Ehlert's other books and have found them to be wonderful, however, I found that this book was so very negative and had some very terrible concepts in it. Although the author portrayed activities that cats do, I was shocked to see them so boldly described in a children's book. I teach preschoolers and would not want to read this book to my class.

I have found Ehlert's books to be wonderful in the past, however, this book was really disappointing!! I couldn't believe that this was a book for young children. I would not read this book to my children!!