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$50 Gift Certificate Holiday Giveaway Enter here:   Mudpuppy Holiday Giveaway  . Here Comes Santa Cat Series: Here Comes Cat Written by Deborah Underwood Illustrations by Claudia Rueda Dial Books for Young Readers  10/21/2014 978-0-8037-4100-3 88 pages     Age 3—5 . “HO, HO . . . WHO? CAT! NOT AGAIN. “The holidays are around …

Here Comes Santa Cat

By Deborah Underwood; pictures by Claudia Rueda

I just found the perfect picture book for the weekly story time for 3, 4 and 5 year olds who may be a tad anxious this time of year. Their reason? An internal examination of conscience may have put some of them, from time to time, on Santa’s proverbial “naughty list!”

Enter Deborah Underwood’s “Here Comes Santa Cat” with pictures by Claudia Rueda who has the gift of portraying frustration, glee, chagrin, doubt and pure joy on the face of a cat. It’s the run up to Christmas and the reader of this picture book gets to act out the part of a gentle inquisitor, asking a Santa clad cat some mildly probing questions such as:

           Question: Why are you dressed like Santa?”

 

           Drawn Response: So you can give yourself a gift?

Seems Cat figures it is a pretty safe bet that he is NOT on the “nice” list which leaves a very ungratifying conclusion. Yes, it’s the “naughty list” for Cat and the solution is perhaps to gift himself because he thinks Santa won’t!

The gentle inquisitor, through a series of give-and-take queries, involves Cat in a education on what it means to BE Santa and Cat’s facial responses are priceless. Climbing down sooty chimneys and jet pack driven rides that end up in tumbles from the sky are not Cat’s idea of Santa scintillation.

The questioner softly tells Cat that Santa does not GET presents, he GIVES them and he suggests Cat just try being NICE.

A worried Cat, carrying a December 24th sign is assured that it’s not too late. He tries caroling or YOWLING, gifting kids with…FISH, decorating the town square tree – all end in disaster. Yet Cat is GIFTED with two cans of fancy cat food by the gentle cat questioner.

This is where the rubber hits the road in Cat’s Santa charade as a poor kitten wanders by, crying out.

                             “Any ideas?” asks the reader.

The frustrated tug-of-war “what to do” look on Cat’s face is a true artistic endeavor. He KNOWS what he has to do, but covers his eyes as he extends a paw with a can of cat food. Ah Cat! We knew you had it in you! And so does Santa as Cat is gifted by Santa himself with… But then again Christmas is supposed to be a time of surprises, no?

Please read this endearing story to a young reader this holiday season. It never sidesteps the difficulty in being a normal kid, yet exults with Santa Cat at the lesson he learns that it’s always better to give than to….But you knew that, right?

by Deborah Underwood

Congratulations, PiBoIdMo-ers! You’re more than halfway home! (56.6666% home, but who’s counting?)

At this point in the game, you may be a little stuck. Believe me, I know the feeling. When I’m devoid of ideas, sometimes remembering the origins of an existing manuscript yields clues about how I might forge ahead.

So, in hopes that it might help you, let me share the genesis of Here Comes the Easter Cat, illustrated by Claudia Rueda. The book resulted from three things that happened in June of 2011:

1) I was floundering around looking for inspiration, so I wrote to a friend, the founder of an animal museum. I asked if there was a kids’ book she saw a need for, something that might be helpful to her in her work. She mentioned that a woman she knew had trouble finding suitable Easter books for her vegan book review site. I didn’t find the idea of writing an Easter book particularly compelling, so I thanked her and promptly forgot about her suggestion. (Or so I thought!)

2) A few weeks later, I had a weirdly illustrator-centric week. I had coffee with one visiting illustrator, coffee another day with two others, and lunch with a local illustrator friend.

3) Several days after that, I was sitting on my bed, still trying to come up with a viable idea. My cat Bella was sprawled in front of me, so I idly doodled a cat. The cat looked grumpy. I asked why, and, to my surprise, the cat held up a sign with the Easter Bunny on it. Intrigued, I continued to ask the cat questions, and Here Comes the Easter Cat took shape.

Why did I decide to draw? I’m not sure, but I’ll bet it was because I’d just talked with all those illustrators.

And why did the Easter Bunny show up on Cat’s sign? Undoubtedly because my friend had mentioned that Easter book a few weeks earlier.

So the book idea came about because:

• I actively sought input from someone outside my usual circle.
• I took off my pajamas—horrors!—and got out into the world, and in doing so, learned more about how illustrators work.
• I gave myself the space to think (sitting on my bed, trying to be receptive) and to play (doodling).

So I was active, and I was passive. I soaked up information from others, and I experimented with something outside my area of expertise. If any of those elements hadn’t been present, I suspect there would be no Cat.

In particular, the drawing component was critical. So I encourage you to play around with doodling or sketching, even if you think you’re not an artist. Here Comes Easter Cat came out earlier this year, Here Comes Santa Cat was just released, and two more Cat books are in the queue. I’m very, very glad I did that first Cat sketch.

One more thing: when I began Easter Cat, I was not thinking of the market. I was definitely not saying, “What the world really needs is an 80-page picture book!” or “I’ll bet my editor is dying to see a stack of sketches by someone who can’t draw!”

Rather, I was having a conversation with Cat for the best of reasons: it amused me. It made me laugh. And what I loved turned out to be what my agent and my editor loved, too.

I am embarrassed to say that I need to remind myself of this over and over. It’s so easy to get caught up in questions like “What do editors want?” and “What can I sell?”

When really, the critical question is, “What do I love?”

So write with your heart. And draw! And if one of your sketches starts talking to you? You should probably pay attention. Best of luck!

Deborah Underwood grew up in Walla Walla, Washington. When she was little, she wanted to be an astronomer. Then she wanted to be a singer. Then she wanted to be a writer. Today her jobs are writing and singing. Two out of three’s not bad! (Okay, she also wanted to work in a piano factory and paste the labels on new pianos, but let’s just ignore that one.)

She’s the author of THE QUIET BOOK, THE LOUD BOOK, PART-TIME PRINCESS, the SUGAR PLUM BALLERINAS series (with Whoopi Goldberg), and, of course THE CAT books, among others.

When she’s not writing, you might find her singing in a chamber choir, playing a ukulele (very badly), walking around in Golden Gate Park, baking vegan cookies, or petting any dogs, cats, pigs, or turkeys that happen to be nearby.

You can connect with her at DeborahUnderwoodBooks.com or on Twitter @underwoodwriter.

Deborah is giving away one copy of EASTER CAT and one copy of SANTA CAT!

These prizes will be given away at the conclusion of PiBoIdMo. You are eligible for these prizes if:

1. You have registered for PiBoIdMo.
2. You have commented ONCE ONLY on today’s post.
3. You have completed the PiBoIdMo challenge. (You will have to sign the PiBoIdMo Pledge at the end of the event.)

Good luck, everyone!

Title: Here Comes Santa Cat Written by: Deborah Underwood Illustrated by: Claudia Rueda Published by: Dial Books for Young Readers, Oct 21st, 2014 Suitable for ages: 3-7 Themes: cats, being nice, Christmas, Santa Fiction, small format, 80 pages Opening Lines: … Continue reading →