Saturday, September 23, 2017

The Catawampus Cat

The Catawampus Cat. Jason Carter Eaton. Illustrated by Gus Gordon. 2017. 32 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: The catawampus cat arrived early on a Tuesday morning...slightly askew. At first no one noticed. The town was a busy town, and the people were busy people.

Premise/plot: A catawampus cat comes to town one day, and, the town gains a new perspective on life. (The definition of catawampus: 1) diagonal or at an angle, 2) askew, awry.) For example, when the barber sees the cat holding its head catawampus (askew), he tilts his own head--mid-clip of the scissors. His customer, a lady, loves the new bangs. (I don't know why! I think she looks awful!) My favorite example would have to be the librarian.
When the town librarian, Miss Reade, saw the catawumpus cat, she pulled the wrong book off the shelf. And then quit her job and set out for an adventure!
The book she 'accidentally' pulled off the shelf is titled How To Build A Boat. The next page shows her rowing a boat in a storm happy as can be.

My thoughts: This one is definitely unique in my opinion. I've read odder books certainly, but I've not always enjoyed them. Odd does not make a book great automatically. I sought my mom's opinion on this one; it is what I do when a book leaves me speechless. Her verdict: it would be better if they left about four pages out. Neither of us understood why "they rebuilt all the houses so they were leaning, and made all the cars off-kilter." Both of us did like the ending.

Text: 3.5 out of 5
Illustrations: 3.5 out of 5
Total: 7 out of 10


© 2017 Becky Laney of Young Readers

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