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Item Barcode | Collection | Call Number | Status | Item Holds |
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| 33607003599548 | Picture Books | WATT | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Summary
Summary
Chester is more than a picture book. It is a story told, and retold, by dueling author-illustrators.
Mélanie Watt starts out with the story of a mouse in a house. Then Mélanie's cat, Chester, sends the mouse packing and proceeds to cover the pages with rewrites from his red marker, and the gloves are off.
Mélanie and her mouse won't take Chester's antics lying down. And Chester is obviously a creative powerhouse with confidence to spare. Where will this war of the picture-book makers lead? Is it a one-way ticket to Chesterville, or will Mélanie get her mouse production off the ground?
Author Notes
Mélanie Watt is an acclaimed children's book author and illustrator. Her books include the Scaredy Squirrel, Chester and Learning With Animals series, Augustine, Leon the Chameleon and Have I Got a Book for You! She lives near Montreal.
Mélanie Watt is an acclaimed children's book author and illustrator. Her books include the Scaredy Squirrel, Chester and Learning With Animals series, Augustine, Leon the Chameleon and Have I Got a Book for You! She lives near Montreal.
Reviews (2)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-K-While the conceit behind this book is quite clever, the presentation will be puzzling to young children and won't be of interest to those who are old enough to "get it." Watt begins writing a story about a mouse that lives in the country. However, her cat, Chester, wants the story to be about him, so he takes a red marker in paw and begins to write his own tale in addition to, and sometimes instead of, the author's. The book needs to be read in two voices (the author's and the cat's) in order to make sense to young listeners; but even then, there is not enough plot to garner their interest, and the concept will require too much explanation. The "story" is merely about the pair's test of wills. Charming pencil and watercolor illustrations, assembled digitally, depict Chester as a pudgy tabby and the mouse as tiny and gray. The chances of this book being requested more than once are remote.-Maryann H. Owen, Racine Public Library, WI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
This sidesplitting metafiction offers further proof of Watt's (the Scaredy Squirrel books) extravagantly fresh, cheeky voice. Here, the exasperated author-illustrator engages in a literary tug-of-war with the eponymous marmalade puss, who has a figure like Nero Wolfe and an outsize ego to match. Chester is determined to thwart Watt's attempts to write a nice little book about a winsome country mouse; using a red magic marker, he writes, "Then Mouse packed his bags and went on a trip very, very far away and we never saw him ever again!" underneath Watt's opening sentence and attempts to make himself the star of the show. Volleys of creativity and red ink follow: Watt introduces a fierce dog, only to have Chester make him vegetarian; Chester begins a new story set in Chesterville ("where mice weren't allowed"), but Watt makes it rain, washing his work away. Chester retaliates by caricaturing the author ("Hi. I am Melanie Watt and I am very angry!" reads a speech bubble), and the mouse even enters the act, complaining, "I can't work like this!" The closing pages seem to give Watt the upper hand (hint: a humiliating pink tutu is involved), but readers, who will adore Chester's unbridled self-interest and blatant disregard for artistic integrity, may suspect that this is one kitty who has not yet begun to fight. Ages 4-8. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved