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SQUASH, THE CAT

Name: SQUASH, THE CAT
Author: Sasha Mayer
ISBN: 9780593566534

by Sasha Mayer ; illustrated by Sasha Mayer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 29, 2023

Funny, clever, and heartwarming.

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Squash the cat and his owner, a little girl named Maggie, are BFFs until Squash commits a big blunder.

While Maggie, a light-skinned child with a head of tousled reddish curls, is a bit more exuberant than nap-loving Squash, the two are nevertheless “perfect-for-each-other best friends.” Each day they share a wonderful breakfast (Squash knocks a box of doughnuts off the top of the fridge, with Maggie waiting below to catch them), and Squash puts an end to Maggie’s boring music lesson by coughing up a hairball on the minuet, to the music teacher’s horror. The giggles will only increase—along with some apprehension—when Squash mistakes Maggie’s new toy tunnel for a big snake about to devour the girl…and acts accordingly. With the tunnel now slashed to ribbons, Maggie is furious, and Squash is “a can’t-eat, can’t-sleep…can’t-face-his-Maggie kind of cat.” After several funny but sad pages depicting Squash’s reaction to Maggie’s anger, the narrator gently asserts that friendship is not perfect, and in a satisfying conclusion, the two literally and figuratively mend their rift. The colorful, sketchy, cartoonish art complements and extends the delightfully playful text that’s full of alliteration and understatement as well as engaging strings of hyphenated words that describe the protagonists. This tale would make an excellent read-aloud in small groups so that little ones can pick out details in the artwork. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Funny, clever, and heartwarming. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2023

ISBN: 9780593566534

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Random House Studio

Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
SQUASH, THE CAT
by Sasha Mayer ; illustrated by Sasha Mayer

PETE THE CAT'S 12 GROOVY DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

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PETE THE CAT'S 12 GROOVY DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

by James Dean ; illustrated by James Dean ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 18, 2018

Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among

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Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.

If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”

Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018

ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS

- BOOK REVIEW
PETE THE KITTY'S FIRST DAY OF PRESCHOOL
by Kimberly Dean ; illustrated by James Dean

- BOOK REVIEW
I LOVE PETE THE KITTY
by James Dean & Kimberly Dean ; illustrated by James Dean

- BOOK REVIEW
TOOL SCHOOL
by Joan Holub ; illustrated by James Dean

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)