Where Is Little Reynard? [Library Binding]

Joyce Carol Oates (Author), Mark Graham (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up

Mama cat has seven kittens. Little Reynard is the smallest, and his brothers and sisters tease him about his size and his orange color. Because he is so small and timid, the little girl, Lily, takes special care of Little Reynard. She gives him his own bowl and even lets him sleep on her pillow, yet sometimes he still feels he doesn’t really belong. Then one cold winter day Little Reynard peers out of an open window and sees two young foxes that look very much like him, and when the foxes invite him to join them, Little Reynard says yes!

In their second picture-book collaboration, following come meet muffin!, acclaimed author Joyce Carol Oates and artist Mark Graham introduce an irresistible feline character who will make himself at home in your heart.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 1-Graham's rich paintings are a mismatch with Oates's predictable story told in trite, patronizing language. Little Reynard is the smallest and only orange one of seven kittens. He is shy and awkward and feels he doesn't fit in with his siblings, though Lily, his owner, dotes on him. One snowy day, he sees some foxes through an open window and joins them for a fun afternoon, returning home with newfound confidence to find that he has been missed. The story is implausible on a number of fronts, including foxes befriending kittens, kittens playing in snow, and the idea that this shy character would suddenly open up to a stranger. The personification of the cats fights with the perfect realism of the paintings, and it's not clear if the story is about Lily or little Reynard. Oates tries to do too much, and thus prevents the text from flowing smoothly. Graham's painterly illustrations are quite lovely, capturing the kittens' joy of motion, and the love of the mother cat when she washes her wayward kitten. Libraries with big fans of Oates may get requests for this book, but others can stick with the many wonderful cat books available.
Amy Lilien-Harper, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Gr. 1-3. A temporary change of scene and playmates rids a kitten of shyness in this new collaboration from the creators of Come Meet Muffin! (1998). Smallest of seven littermates, Little Reynard is teased, shouldered away from the food bowl, and forced to watch the other kittens play from atop his young human keeper's shoulder. All of that changes after an open window and two fox kits, Rusty and Flora, tempt Little Reynard out into the snow for a romp in the woods. He returns that evening a new cat, fluffed out and confident--and to an unexpectedly warm welcome from his sibs, too. Reflecting the episode's faintly precious air, but not its anthropomorphism, Graham scatters each impressionistic indoor and outdoor scene with cute, fuzzy animals in natural-looking poses. Susceptible readers will be charmed. John Peters
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Library Binding: 32 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; 1 edition (September 16, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006029583X
• ISBN-13: 978-0060295837
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 10.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,713,990 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joyce Carol Oates is the author of more than 70 books, including novels, short story collections, poetry volumes, plays, essays, and criticism, including the national bestsellers We Were the Mulvaneys and Blonde. Among her many honors are the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction and the National Book Award. Oates is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University, and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Very Sweet Book, May 19, 2005

By 

Karen W (Brookline, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Where Is Little Reynard? (Hardcover)

This is a beautiful book. The pictures are wonderful and the story is very sweet. My 19 month old can't wait to get to his grandparents' house so that he can read Little Reynard. A nice classic story.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Seemed oddly familiar., May 20, 2005

By 

Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Lakewood, OH) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Where Is Little Reynard? (Library Binding)

Joyce Carol Oates, Where Is Little Reynard? (Ecco, 2003)

Like Come Meet Muffin, another JCO-penned, Mark Graham-illustrated, Ecco-released picture book. Like Come Meet Muffin, about the Smith family and their daughter Lily (I have not been able to ascertain whether the Oates family has a daughter/granddaughter of that name from a quick web search). Like Come Meet Muffin, about a cat who hops out the window (though for a different reason this time) and gets lost.

Now, we all know that Joyce Carol Oates is, in fact, a human-shaped robot who does nothing but write (or keeps one chained in her basement, because someone has to be writing a thousand pages a day while she's teaching classes), because there's no human being on the planet who can turn out that much consistently good work at that rate of speed, let alone doing it for coming up on half a century now. But one wonders if the CD player in the robot's head skipped, because Where Is Little Reynard? is almost identical to Come Meet Muffin. Granted, five years passed between their release dates, but still. It's very un-JCO, otherwise Beasts would be functionally identical to Foxfire, which would be functionally identical to Because it Is Bitter..., which would be (you get the picture), and such is emphatically not the case. One is left, well, rather confused.

The saving grace is, of course, Mark Graham's lovely illustrations, which are themselves well worth the price of admission.

This one will probably stay a library loaner, unlike Come Meet Muffin, which I'll definitely be buying. But it's definitely one the kids will see at some point. ***