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Author: Caroline Lazo
Illustrator: Kyrsten Brooker
Published: 2008 Random House (on JOMB)
ISBN: 037583754X

Chapters.ca Amazon.com

Radically textured paint and collage illustrations combine with informative rhyming text as the imagined journeys of a young girl’s cat become an upbeat introduction to the landmarks and traditions of Europe.

Other books mentioned:

• Safe and Sound

More cats on JOMB:

• Cat Magic
• The Tortilla Cat

Be sure to pop over to Sarah Reinhard’s blog for today’s full menu of poetry offerings. Poetry Fridays are brought to us by Kelly Herold of Big A, Little A.

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You know, I love Poetry Friday. I really, really do. You can post your own poetry--say, about spring, or about (hellish) winter, or about graduation--or you can just post a picture of your cat and link it tangentially to a Poetry Friday book review.*

Today I review a rhyming picture book over at Book Buds for Poetry Friday. The book in question is the utterly fun Someday When My Cat Can Talk, by Caroline Lazo and illustrated by Kyrsten Brooker. In Someday When My Cat Can Talk, the little girl protagonist imagines what her cat would say if he could talk. And, guess what? He takes a witty trip around Europe and has great things to say. Check out this fabulous stanza, which is my Poetry Friday entry:


He'll speak fondly of the snail he met
while camping out near Cannes.
And he'll whisper why she's hiding
from the chef at Cafe Sands.

Oh, snap! That's one smart cat. (And one smart picture book.)

My cat, however, pictured above, is a different sort of animal. I imagine his thought process as follows: Paper! R-i-i-i-i-p! [Blank] What's that sound? Food? [Blank] What's that sound? Food? Food? Food? [Blank] [Blank] [Blank] [Blank] R-i-i-i-i-p!

And, yeah, that's pretty much it for poor Norbert. He's a book killing, pear-shaped, dim witted, sweetheart of a cat. We love him, but he is not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

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* Speaking of original poetry...can I just say that I am getting several hits per day from people searching for "pedicure poems"? I'm honestly truly shocked by this.

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Also, did you know it's Vampire month? I'll be back in a few hours with a Vampire graphic novel review!
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Writer2be is on the roundup. Head on over and leave your links!

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OK! First things first!

The October Issue of The Edge of the Forest is up. There are a TON of YA reviews and some great articles.

I personally review The Hollywood Sisters: Caught on Tape by Mary Wilcox and Keeping Corner by Kashmira Sheth.

Also, nominations are still open for the Cybils. I always like to wait until the end, because I can't figure out what to nominate (really? only one?!) so I wait and hope that most of my list is nominated by the time I get around to it. BUT! Time is running out. I've already nominated in some categories. You should too!

But, now onto some very old books for book reviews. Both of these titles are ones I read when I was a child and remembered fondly, so picked them up. Both of them were books that haunted me, as I remembered only the scantest of details and nothing as useful as, say, a title. But I tracked them both down...

The song of the day is Charlotte Sometimes by The Cure, because it's about the first book I'm talking about,

Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer

On that bleak track
(See the sun is gone again)
The tears were pouring down her face
She was crying and crying for a girl
Who died so many years before...

It's always dangerous to reread a childhood favorite. I've been burned in the past, but... I'm so glad I reread this one.

Charlotte goes to boarding school in mid-century England. The second day there, she wakes up to find she's gone back in time 50 years and changed places with a girl called Clare. Charlotte and Clare spend one day in their own time, one day in each other's, and then one day back in their own time and on and on until...

Charlotte is moved off campus, stuck in Clare's time. Trapped at the end of WWI, with a growing flu epidemic, she grows conflicted. Charlotte wonders where she ends and where Clare begins, and as memories of her real life fade, she wonders if she ever will go back, or even if she wants to.

This book was even better than I remembered it. Farmer really delves into some deep issues and she treats them well, but, at the same time, so light-handed that they're just left as a little niggling thought in the back of your head.

Now, the book I've pictured and linked to is a re-release, and I've heard they CHANGED THE ENDING. The book I just reread and reviewed is the original. I'm trying to get my hands on a copy of the new version. I'll let you know what I find out.

I am less glad I reread Little Witch by Anna Elizabeth Bennett.

I remembered this book as a mischievous little witch who invites her friends over to make cool potions.

Sigh. I know this is the book I was thinking of, I remember the cover exactly and when I re-read it, I was like, oh yeah, ok. Still, I think maybe I'll just write the story I remember as it's so much cooler.

Instead, we have a little girl who's mother is a witch and very mean. The little girl sneaks out to go to school and finally makes some friends. All she wants to do is a see a fairy, and, while her evil mother is off being evil, she and her friends sneak into the potion cupboard to try and make a fairy potion or something.

This book was originally written in the early 50s and smacks of the same overly cloying sentimentality of Dick and Jane readers. Puke.

That said, I don't know how many times I read this book in elementary school. I remember going to the library, picking all my books, and, while waiting for the rest of the family to finish up, pulling this book off the shelf and just randomly opening it up and re-reading until everyone else was ready. So... kids might still like it, but I'm not so sure about adults... Read the rest of this post

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