93. The Kids of Cattywampus Street

The Kids of Cattywampus Street. Lisa Jahn-Clough. Illustrated by Natalie Andrewson. 2021. [July] 128 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: I am going to tell you some stories about the kids who live on Cattywumpus Street.

Premise/plot: The Kids of Cattywampus Street is a collection of stories. Each story focuses in on one of the kids who live....you guessed it....on Cattywumpus Street. Lionel. Lindalee. Hans. Evelyn. Charlotta. Rodney. Mateo. Ameera. Emmett. Bob. Ursula. Each story is relatively short and has a couple of illustrations. The characters overlap here and there--you might find Hans and Lindalee in a story about Lionel, for example. But essentially each story can stand on its own.

My thoughts: I just want to take a moment to quote the jacket copy of this one:

Lovers of Roald Dahl and Louis Sachar's Sideways Stories from Wayside School will be captivated by the adventures of this very special group of friends who live on the same street.

I don't know if I should laugh or cry. I love (or tend to love) Roald Dahl and Louis Sachar's Sideways Stories are a treat. But this book is a hundred million miles away from being anything remotely like those two examples. The stories are NOT delightful, extraordinary, magical, etc. (These are words from other places of the jacket copy.)

Most of the stories are bland, boring, pointless, forgettable. True, there are a handful of stories that are more memorable in comparison with the others. I won't be forgetting Hans horrific appetite for waffles. (This one felt slightly, slightly, slightly Neil Gaiman-ish). Charlotta's story was straight from the Twilight Zone--a doll house that she couldn't afford shows up one day, she finds she can shrink herself down (and the other family members) down so they can fit into the dollhouse. But for the most part, the stories stumble around and are lost.

If it wasn't being praised as an extraordinary book (Lemony Snicket) and compared to Dahl and Sachar, would I appreciate it more? Probably. Perhaps. I would have started with ZERO expectations and might have been surprised by a few stories. Instead, I went into the book expecting it to deliver something worth my time and effort--something delightful, charming, captivating, etc.

And the jacket copy can't even be bothered to get the names of the children correct. 

Reading is 100% subjective. Perhaps as an adult reader this one just isn't for me. Maybe a child would find the stories all kinds of wonderful. We don't all have to laugh at the same jokes after all.

© 2021 Becky Laney of Young Readers

7. A Trio of Tolerable Tales

A Trio of Tolerable Tales. Margaret Atwood. Illustrated by Dusan Petricic. 2017. 52 pages. [Source: Library] [Short stories; children's book; humor]

Premise/plot: A Trio of Tolerable Tales is a collection of three short stories—or tales. The stories are Rude Ramsay and the Roaring Radishes, Bashful Bob and Doleful Dorinda, Wandering Wenda. Each story is premise driven. This is how I imagine the book’s origin: I dare you to write a story using alliteration! Atwood: I accept that dare! I’ll write THREE stories and show you who’s boss!

Each story is an adventure if you define adventure loosely. The characters aren’t really shaped in any traditional way—the characters , the plot, everything is driven by the need to start with a particular letter. In the first story, it’s the letter r with a few wr words thrown in. In the second it is the letters b and d. In the final story, it’s the letter w.

My thoughts: If the use of obscure or mostly obscure vocabulary words matters more to you than story, sense, or characters...then do I have a book for you. There’s nothing wrong with premise driven books, I just wish it wasn’t marketed to young readers. I doubt that a new reader—say second grade—would have the patience to endure such a tedious, no, TOLERABLE book. The more reluctant a reader is, the worse this one will go. I do see it being appealing to the Matilda-like and Amy-like precocious and voracious reader.

But essentially I don’t recommend this one to most young readers. It would be a tiresome read aloud, I imagine.


© 2020 Becky Laney of Young Readers