Details
Synopsis
Two cats fall in love in a rose garden.
| Size | | Height: | 9.5 in | | Width: | 9.3 in | | Thickness: | 0.5 in | | Weight: | 13.6 oz |
Industry Reviews
This pert and pithy picture book has strong visual echoes of Raschka's Yo! Yes? down to the bright yellow dust jacket. But if the thematic territory of loneliness and friendship is familiar, the development and spirit here are fresh. As a solo white cat watches the animal world pair off ("Two by two,/ he and she,/ curly and/ straight, fancy/ and plain/ ...go"), he droops in dejection, eyes closed, head and ears down, with only the departing animals' tails in his view ("Unlike the rest. Unlucky, alone"). But then he sets off to see what the wide world has to offer. Raschka's characteristically lean text is a marvel of lyrical vigor, charting the feline's travels with a playful and poetic assortment of rhymes, homonyms, alliteration and imagery from "rows and rows of roses" to "flowers and fliers" in a spread with butterflies whose wings seem to be composed of the petals of the blossoms they hover above. Raschka amplifies the hero's moods in his use of background color: dull brown and stark white when the cat is feeling forlorn, contrasted with the more resonant yellows, blues, oranges and greens of his journey and a climactic heartwarming blast of pink when he finally finds a soulmate. Raschka's newest offering is an eminently satisfying tale of love (or in this case, like) sought and found. Ages 2-5. (Mar.)
Fox
PreS-Gr 3-In Yo! Yes? (Orchard, 1993), Raschka told a hip story of blossoming friendship in spare and sweet prose. Like pushes the visual and literary elements further; it is a love story, a tale of a lonely cat who notices the world in twos and yearns to be part of it...until a like-minded feline comes on the scene. Text and art blend effortlessly in their seeming simplicity. With a few bold strokes of oil pastels and watercolor, Raschka conveys here the sadness, there the rapture in the cat's face and posture. Likewise, he works his words for maximum affect. Children will delight in the sounds at the end, where he plays with the multiple meanings of the word "like" and shows the pair romping through "rows and rows of roses." Even the font can't sit still by this point. A fresh choice for a Valentine's storytime, perfect for pairing with Noah variants, and just right for snuggled sharing.-Wendy Lukehart, Dauphin County Library, Harrisburg, PA
Fox
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