I started reading this to my almost-one-year-old last night and for the first few pages I thought, "Oh wow, this is exceptionally lame." It's Fish the Fish!It's Duck the Duck!It's Mouse the Mouse!I'm reading this out loud, trying to be enthusiastic but in my head thinking, "Seriously? This is the whole freakin' book? Somebody actually made money off of naming a character Fish the Fish?!" But then, the joke was on me when the book took a very goofy, surprising twist at the end. The last few pages completely changed my opinion, and I found myself laughing as I closed the book. Plus, here's the thing: even if the whole text really had been as lame as I thought it was going to be at first, I'd have to give it a good rating anyway because my baby loved the illustrations. He normally nurses while we read, but he gave up on eating to sit up and look at the pictures and help me turn the pages. He was more enthusiastic about this book than he has been about almost any other we've looked at in his short life. Obviously, Mo Willems is on to something. Harriet is a transitional reader. That means she can read simple words and is starting to wrap her head around sounding out longer words. Mo Willems has a two series aimed at readers like her: the Elephant and Piggie books and a new series staring Cat the Cat.Since Harriet's such a cat person, we started on the Cat the Cat series first. The one she picked was Cat the Cat, Who is That? by Mo Willems. It introduces Cat the Cat and all her friends. It begins pretty simply with the sorts of animals that usually show up in these sorts of books. These first few pages build confidence in the reader and build a false sense of predictability.But remember, this is a Mo Willems book. I've yet to read a book of his that is completely predictable, except for its unpredictability. Cat the Cat comes through with a delightfully silly friend. I'm not going to spoil it for you or your young reader. Get the book and enjoy the surprise first hand.
Do You like book Cat The Cat, Who Is That? (2010)?
