Cat Tale: 01/10/13

Cat Tale by Michael Hall is about three cats who go on an adventure, have a run in with homophones and find themselves scrambled and confused. Lillian, Tilly and William J begin their day with a picnic but along the way:

They use a box.
They box some fleas.
And flee a steer.

You can see where this is going. The further they go, the more and whackier the homophones they encounter become. Hall's brightly colored pictures illustrate the homophones, helping early readers master some of the oddities of the English language.

Cat Tale has a good balance of easy to read and challenging words for children who are making the transition from learning to read to more difficult books. My daughter, struggled with understanding the plot the first time, being caught off guard by the homophones. The second time she read the book aloud and that helped to her to hear what Hall was doing.

For the younger set, I think the homophones combined with the silly illustrations will make for a fun storytime or bedtime story.

Five stars.

Comments (2)

Comment #1: Monday, January 21, 2013 at 01:28:17

Earl

First of all, I love how the titles are linked to Powell's. Yay, to Independent Bookstores since I work at one! I was kind of disappointed with this book considering I loved My Heart is Like a Zoo. I do think I need to reread it now that I know what to expect.

Comment #2: Monday, January 28, 2013 at 17:57:12

Pussreboots

If my local indie had an affiliate program, the links would be going there. Powells though is a good compromise, I think. I like this one more than My Heart is Like a Zoo but that's probably because I have cats and a daughter who is nuts about cat books.