Matilda's Cat

January 6, 2014
Gravett’s humor generally runs from giddy to Gothic; in this story, it’s toward the sweeter end of the spectrum. Dressed in a cat costume, Matilda makes ambitious plans for her cat—and her cat ignores them. The text consists of pencil-scrawled lists of things that her cat “likes,” which get crossed out as they fail to prove true. “Matilda’s cat likes playing with wool,” writes Gravett (Again!) as the cat cowers behind the yarn basket. Matilda tries stacking cardboard boxes into a playhouse (“playing with wool, boxes”) and pedaling a trike (“playing with wool, boxes, and riding bikes!”); the cat leaps in the other direction. It turns out that a good cuddle is all it wants. The cumulative pile-up of failures, comic in itself, is augmented with many smaller giggles (a tea party in which Matilda gets all the treats and the cat is left with a banana). Both cat and child project a wild and humorous range of emotion, from the cat’s terror at a canine shadow puppet to Matilda’s perturbation that her pet would rather lick itself indecorously than participate in her best-laid plans. Ages 4–8.

Starred review from January 15, 2014
A master of animal countenance, Gravett pairs an expressive cat with a busy kid and winks at the difference between textual and visual message. Matilda likes many things, including riding bikes, climbing trees, funky hats and fighting foes. Each spread shows Matilda playing at one thing while the text claims that her orange tabby enjoys it. "Matilda's cat likes playing with wool," it begins, as rosy-cheeked Matilda romps inside a huge, multicolored wool tangle and launches a ball of yarn toward the cat. He looks up with wide-eyed trepidation. On the next page, the words "playing with wool" are neatly crossed out and replaced by the word "boxes": The narration now admits that tabby doesn't like playing with wool but instead claims he likes Matilda's box-stacking-and-hiding game (actually he looks alarmed). This pattern continues, the text asserting and then retracting (with cross-outs) what the cat likes. A tea party dismays him, as Matilda serves him an unpeeled banana. A bedtime story causes stiff-tailed, whiskers-on-end terror--though is it due to Matilda's storybook, Gravett's own Dogs (2010), or the large dog/wolf shadow puppet casually cast by her chubby fingers? Matilda sports a head-to-toe tabby suit, linking cat and girl all along; the shrewd and skillful art implies sly underlying affection even when the cat's nonplussed, worried or asleep. Even Matilda's cat would like this. (Picture book. 3-6)

COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 1, 2014

PreS-Gr 1-The day Matilda put on her cat suit and made mischief of one kind and another, her aloof and rather skittish feline just said, "No." Despite the child's best efforts, Matilda is unable to engage her pet in playing with wool or boxes, climbing trees, or riding bikes. After a failed tea party, drawing session, and bedtime story, the youngster takes off her cat suit and gets ready for bed and finally captures the tabby's attention. The energetic watercolor artwork is pure Gravett, with plenty of visual jokes and with characters-girl and cat-who express their feelings with every fiber of their being. For every overly exuberant youngster who has ever attempted to win the affections of a feline, this picture book offers reassurances that the friendship bond will most like occur but perhaps not on the child's timetable.-Luann Toth, School Library Journal\

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2014
Preschool-G Matilda, dressed in a ginger-striped cat costume, loves to play with her ginger-striped cat, but her poor cat doesn't like anything Matilda wants to do. Appearing in hand-scrawled, pencil-like lettering on each double-page spread is a list of things Matilda thinks her cat will enjoy: Matilda's cat likes playing with wool. But the cat hides behind the yarn basket instead of playing, so playing with wool gets scratched out. So does riding bikes, funky hats, climbing trees, and bedtime stories (though to be fair, it was a book about dogs). Eventually, after her cat has snubbed everything Matilda wants to do, she grumpily puts on her pj's to go to bed, but all is well: there's one thing the cat does like, and that's Matilda. Gravett, the creator of Again! (2013), creates big, bold drawings against clean, white backgrounds, perfect for showcasing spunky Matilda, her uncooperative cat, and their odd-couple friendship, which happily succeeds even though they have nothing in common.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)