Here’s my selection for Perfect Picture Book Friday:
The Cat, The Dog, Little Red, The Exploding Eggs, The Wolf, and Grandma
By Diane and Christyan Fox
Scholastic Press, 2014
Fiction
Suitable for: ages 4-8 years
Theme/Topic: Fractured Fairytale, Comedy
Opening Spread: What’s This? [Dog looks up at the beginning of Little Red Riding Hood]
It’s a story about a little girl … who always wears a red cape with a hood. [A cat in a chair reading a book.]
Brief Synopsis — From the publisher’s site: Cat begins to tell a tale about a little girl who wears a red cape with a hood. Dog loves stories about superheroes and special powers, but “Little Red Riding Hood” is not that kind of a story. Cat is determined to read the story the right way, but Dog has his own ideas about how it should go! Their zany back-and-forth retelling of the classic tale celebrates the joy of reading and questioning.
Resources: Little Red Riding Hood lessons, Debate lessons, and I think this book lends itself to thinking of ways to change up Little Red Riding Hood or other fairly tales.
Why I Like LOVE This Book: OH MY GOODNESS! I found this book abandoned on a couch in the children’s area of our library. I hope it was abandoned, because I wanted to take it home the moment I looked at the endpapers. Cat and Dog’s back and forth is awesome.
I have two stories in my pile-o-manuscripts that have a back and forth vibe. This may be one of the many reasons I love this book — my sense of humor, my son’s laughter when we read it every night for a week, and a bit of hope that one of my own stories like this could make it into print.
I made an 8 at Rate Your Story (an 8 is bad, really bad) for one of those stories. I loved the feedback, because it basically suggested, if I wrote a story… I might have something. :-/
Well, what do you know … one of the 2 star ratings for this book says, “It’s not really a story.” Hee hee. There are 78 reviews for this book (more than many picture books I look up on Amazon) with an overall 4.2 rating.
If you can find this book, I would love to hear what you think about this storytelling format. My poor critique group mates suffer through my efforts on stories like this.
For more PPBF books, visit Susanna Leonard Hill’s Blog.
If you celebrate Easter (or not), I hope you have a blessed weekend.
We finally read Here Comes the Easter Cat by Deborah Underwood and Illustrated by Claudia Rueda. I know it’s not about the Holy Week, but it was a stinkin’ funny book. Enzo and I both laughed. We are not cat people, but we like Cat!
Still waiting for this book to come to my library!
Best of luck with your back and forth subversive “non-story” Stacy. You are starting a trend!
Happy Easter!
I had put a back-and-forth-banter book through my crit-group many moons ago and maybe we two need to swap! I loved this book too, and believe any book that makes you wamt to read it again is worth it! Some books need to break the ‘story’ rules, or we’d be bored, right?
This book shows how important an amazing title is too, to hook you in!
I love book that are outside of the box and that an agent and publisher saw its “possibility.” The title is also catchy. I’m curious.
My library doesn’t have this one either. After several weeks of not being able to find your book recommendations I’m beginning to think that libraries west of the Mississippi are way cooler than those in the east. It isn’t even in the county system for requests.
Anything that celebrates the joy of reading and questioning is definitely for us! Thank you for the great review. It’s always interesting to see when someone gives a book one or two stars and as to why.
My library has it and I look forward to reading it. It looks like a great book!
I’m not a cat person either, but I enjoyed reading your post. And I’m very curious about this picture book. Thanks for sharing.
That title sure is a mouthful – and this sounds TOTALLY fun and crazy! Definitely requesting it from my library. Thanks!
I love the back and forth! Have a lot of dialogue in my memoir draft. It keeps it lively 🙂 And it’s always fun to redo Little Red a bit. Happy holiday weekend to you and family!
Just put it on hold! It looks like a lot of fun. Plus, what a way to tell/argue about a story. I love the idea of a red-caped superhero.
I just ordered it from my library. Thanks for telling me about it. It sounds really, really cute.
OH Wow! How funny that you found a book exactly like the kind you are writing! And Rate Your Story did not like it! so funny. ( 🙁 )
I am getting this book out of the library to read as fast as I can. I am very intrigued. thanks for introducing this to us.
Good luck in getting your work published. some day I’ll say ,” I knew you when.”
This book sounds like something I’d like. 🙂