When Cats Dream: 03/04/10

If you're a Captain Underpants fan, you've heard of Dav Pilkey. If you're not and your kids aren't either, you probably haven't. Besides writing the Captain Understands series, he also has some stand alone picture books for children. The one Harriet chose was When Cats Dream.

The book looks at the "real lives" of cats vs. their "dream lives." The dream lives are done in bright colors that mimic famous paintings or periods of art. They are inviting to look at. The artwork was the definitely the highlight of the book for Harriet and me.

The text, written as a rhapsody has a difficult meter for reading aloud. I stumbled in places when reading the book. Likewise, the story left Harriet confused in trying to separate out the real from the dream even though they were represented by distinct visual styles. To her the book had two parts: ugly pictures and pretty pictures. She preferred the pretty pictures but didn't know how the story fit together.

Comments (2)

Comment #1: Thursday, March, 4, 2010 at 19:12:04

Mariana N. Blaser

Wow, the title grabbed my attention at once! I'm much curious about the artwork as well. It seems this one is more suitable to older children, like myself, heh. ;)

Comment #2: Friday, March 5, 2010 at 21:55:19

Pussreboots

Yes, it's suitable for older "children" too, especially ones who have studied some art history.