So what's it like to be a cat?

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Title:

So what's it like to be a cat?

Alternate title:

So what is it like to be a cat?

Author:

Kuskin, Karla, author.

Lewin, Betsy, illustrator.

Summary:

A cat answers a young child's questions about such things as how much and where it sleeps, and whether or not it likes living with people.

Edition:

1st ed.

Physical Description:

1 v. (unpaged) : col. ill. ; 27 cm.

Genre:

Subject Term:

Author(s):

Publisher:

Atheneum Books for Young Readers,

Publication Date:

2005

ISBN:

9780689847332

9781415608982

Publication Information:

New York : Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2005.

Call Number:

P KUSKIN

Holds: Copies:

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Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607001850521	Picture Books	KUSKIN	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

So, what's it like to be a cat?
I'm very glad you asked me that.
Are cats afraid of the dark? Where do they prefer to sleep? What time do cats eat their breakfast? And what do they really think of dogs (and people!)? The award-winning team of Karla Kuskin and Betsy Lewin explore the secret inner lives of felines in this beguiling question-and-answer interview between an intrepid child and a very clever cat.

Author Notes

Karla Kuskin was born in Manhattan on July 17, 1932. She received a bachelor of fine arts degree from Yale University in 1955. Her first book, Roar and More (1956), was the result of her senior graphic-arts project, for which she had to design and print a book on a small press. She was the author or illustrator of more than 50 children's books during her lifetime including In the Middle of the Trees (1958); The Rose on My Cake (1964); The Philharmonic Gets Dressed (1982); The Dallas Titans Get Ready for Bed (1986); Jerusalem, Shining Still (1987); City Dog (1994); The Upstairs Cat (1997); Moon, Have You Met My Mother? (2003); and Traces (2008). She died of cortical basal ganglionic degeneration on August 20, 2009 at the age of 77.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (2)

School Library Journal Review

PreS-Gr 3-Two award winners team up to explore playfully the essence of being a cat. The framework of an interview between a boy and a feline allows for a series of skillfully constructed calls and responses. For example, the youngster asks, "Do you have a kitty bed/with your picture at the head?" and his subject replies, "I do not have a kitty bed/to rest my kitty tail and head./I'd rather/sleep most anywhere/that's warm and soft:/a couch,/a chair,/a sleeping loft;/I'll curl up there." Within strong black lines, the loosely composed watercolor cartoons perfectly capture the range of expressions, postures, and mischievous ways of cats. The illustrations are set against crisp white backgrounds and each page offers a diverse layout that enhances the cadence of the poem. This inextricable interplay of art and text works harmoniously to provide a delightful portrait of the capricious nature of felines. A great choice for reading aloud.-Caroline Ward, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publisher's Weekly Review

Lewin's (Cat Count) title page illustration cleverly makes clear the premise of Kuskin's (Toots the Cat, reviewed above) playful poem by featuring an announcement on a schoolroom blackboard: "Today's Assignment: An Interview." A boy sits in a pupil's wooden chair with paper and pencil while a gray cat reclines in a director's chair, as if she were the prized guest of a late night show. "So, what's it like to be a cat?" asks the red-haired boy. "I'm very glad you asked me that," answers the yellow-eyed feline, and she launches into a description of her habits ("slipping out on silent feet,/ I search for something nice to eat") and the differences between cats and other creatures. The boy's questions punctuate his subject's self-centered riffs about where she sleeps and demonstrations of how well she can leap. Lewin's fetchingly feline black-lined watercolors on stark white pages model how the pet can "bounce and pounce/ and slide and sally,/ rush and run/ and twirl and spring" until she literally knocks her interviewer off his chair. The furry star is fittingly egotistical and arch, whimsical and proud. At times, the rhyming text seems a tad formal for a conversation, but throughout Lewin underscores the humor inherent in Kuskin's depiction of a cat's narcissistic existence, and the black-lined gray heroine exhibits all that a feline should be "Meow. And how." Ages 3-8. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Reviews (2)

School Library Journal Review

Publisher's Weekly Review