Le Portrait de Papa (French)

Title/Titre: Le fils du chat – Le Portrait de Papa
Author/Auteur: Philippe Geluck
Publisher/Éditeur: Casterman
ISBN: 9782203125315

Nathalie’s Review (at age 8)

This is a story of a cat who drew a picture of his father.  His father liked it and bought him a box of paints.  The little cat used the paints to draw another picture of his father with a green chin, red nose and blue ears.  His father did not like this one.  The little cat said, “Let me fix that.”  So he took the paints and painted another picture, this time on the wall.  His father was very angry and gave him another present – this time a big pot of white paint – so that he could paint the wall white again.

This was an easy book to read, with very few words on each page.  About ten words.  There were only a few words I didn’t understand.  I liked the book and found it funny.  It is the first book in a series of Le Fils Du Chat which means The Cat’s Son.

Compte-rendu de Nathalie (à 8 ans)

C’est l’histoire d’un chat qui peint le portrait de son papa.  Son papa aime son portrait, mais un jour, le petit chat reçoit de la peinture en cadeau et il peint un autre portrait de son papa. Son papa aime mieux le premier, parce que dans le deuxième, son nez est rouge, ses oreilles sont bleues et son menton est vert.  Le petit chat décide d’arranger ça et d’ajouter des habits à son papa, en dessinant sur le mur.  Son papa est très fâché …

J’ai aimé les illustrations et j’ai appris un nouveau mot – Chouette !  Ce qui veut dire Cool !

Chester (French)

Titles/Titres: Chester, Le Chef-d’œuvre de Chester
Author and Illustrator/Auteure et Illustratrice: Mélanie Watt
Publisher/Éditeur: Éditions Scholastic
ISBNs: 9780545998611, 9781443101455

Alethea’s Review (at age 12)

Two hilarious French books that beg to be read aloud.

In Chester, Watt is apparently trying to write a story about a little mouse (who keeps on popping up and commenting), but Chester keeps scrawling on her book with red marker. Chester’s comments are priceless, as well as the on-paper interaction with the author. The ending brings more laughs, as—but I won’t spoil it for you.

Le Chef-d’œuvre de Chester has Chester writing his own “masterpiece”—after stealing Watt’s writing and drawing equipment. His stories have him as the hero, and never fail to amuse me. The mouse makes multiple appearances.

The sentences are short and simple, the illustrations are delightful, and the font is large, but some of the words are pretty hard. However, it should be fine (and a really fun read) for anyone with a basic understanding of French.

Warning: Nope.

Le compte-rendu de Alethea (à 12 ans)

C’est l’histoire d’un chat, d’une souris et d’une auteure. Mélanie Watt, l’auteure qui essaie d’écrire une histoire de souris, est toujours interrompue par ce chat, Chester, qui veux qu’elle écrive une histoire sur lui. Parce qu’elle ne veut pas, Chester reprend l’histoire en se mettant lui-même comme personnage principal. Il gâche tout avec son encre rouge. Chester est vraiment drôle et amusant, mais Mélanie pense le contraire. 🙂

Dans Le Chef-d’œuvre de Chester, ce mauvais chat a volé tous les outils de travail de Mélanie. Il veut écrire une histoire, toujours avec le même encre rouge, dont il est le héros et la souris, la vilaine, mais Mélanie place beaucoup de Post-its dans ses textes, réprimandant Chester, l’avisant de ne pas continuer et lui demandant de lui rendre ses outils. Elle menace Chester, mais il refuse et continue d’écrire. C’est aussi drôle que le premier livre et j’ai beaucoup apprécié.

Évidemment, Chester n’aime pas les souris.

Ces livres illustrés sortent complètement de l’ordinaire. Les illustrations et le style sont incroyables – entre autres, l’acrostiche où Chester se met en vedette dans le livre Chester.

Avertissment: Il n’ya pas. 

Bill Peet’s Rhyming Books

Titles: The Pinkish, Purplish, Bluish Egg; The Caboose Who Got Loose; The Kweeks of Kookatumdee; The Luckiest One of All
Author: Bill Peet
Publisher: Sandpiper Houghton Mifflin Books
ISBN: 9780395361726, 9780395287156, 9780395486566, 9780395395936

Timothy’s Review (at age 10)

This is the first of three posts about Bill Peet’s books.  Some of his books are written in prose and some are in rhyme.  He has also written an autobiography.

The four books in this review are written in rhyme, a typical example of which is:

“There are so many things I’d much rather be,”
Said a boy sitting up in a sycamore tree,
“And I wish I knew of some magical word
That would suddenly change me into a bird.
What a terrific treat it would be to go flying
High over the tree tops without even half trying!
Of all the wild creatures the bird is the one
Who seems to be having most of the fun.”

That is how The Luckiest One of All starts.  A boy wishes to become a bird, the bird wishes to become a fish, etc etc, and in the end it all comes back to the boy who is the luckiest one of all.

The Kweeks of Kookatumdee is about a certain little island where there are birds with big beaks and small wings.  Their only food is the fruit from the ploppolop tree, but since they can’t fly and they can’t climb, they have to wait till the fruit falls.  And when it does, it is a free-for-all for every kweek to get more than his share to satisfy his hunger.  However there is a very big, very fast and very strong Kweek named Jed, who steals all the fruit.  With Jed around, how can the other Kweeks get enough to eat?

In The Pinkish, Purplish, Bluish Egg, Bill Peet tells the story of a turtledove named Myrtle.  Her children have flown the nest and she is very depressed.  So it is hardly surprising that when she finds an egg in a cave, she acts on a motherly impulse to take it to her nest and hatch it.  What comes out is a griffin.

The Caboose Who Got Loose is all about a Caboose who wants to get off this train and be something else, like a cottage or a house or a little log cabin.  One day she finally gets loose on a steep mountain track but what happens next is up to you to find out.

Bill Peet was an animator for Disney in the early days, so needless to say, his illustrations are brilliant.  Each page has more picture than text, but the text is not simplistic although it is comprehensible.  These are very boy-ish books and they are the perfect transition from picture books to chapter books.

Hush! A Thai Lullaby

Title: Hush!: A Thai Lullaby
Author: Minfong Ho
Illustrator: Holly Meade
Publisher: Orchard Books
ISBN: 9780531071663

Nathalie’s review (at age 8)

Nobody made me read this short and ”babyish” book, Hush, I chose it myself, because I think babies are adorable, cute, and as Che Che (my big sister Alethea) calls them, “furry”.  It is about a mother telling every animal that’s making a noise “be quiet silly animal, my baby is sleeping nearby”.  It doesn’t really say “silly animal” but I decided to use it :). But actually the baby has been awake all this time.

Dogs Don’t Wear Sneakers

Title: Dogs Don’t Wear Sneakers
Author: Laura Numeroff
Illustrator: Joe Mathieu
Publisher: Aladdin Paperbacks
ISBN: 9780689878282

Nathalie’s Review (at age 8)

This rhyming book is very funny.  It’s like Animals Should Definitely NOT Wear Clothing, with pictures of all the things that humans do but animals shouldn’t … like roosters working out in a gym, bees baking honey buns and rabbits sunbathing.  Like some other books, it is not really about anything, but the expressions on the animals’ faces are very funny.

Time for Bed

Title: Time for Bed
Author: Mem Fox
Illustrator: Jane Dyer
Publisher: Red Wagon Books
ISBN: 9780152010669

Daniel’s Review (at age 3)

Every night I ask Mummy to read this book to me because I like it.  I like the bird and the cow and the sheep, the fish, the snake, the puppy, the deer and the boy … I like all of them.  All of the mummies are saying, “Go to sleep”.  And my favourite part is the part when the mummy says, “Go to sleep now, because if you don’t sleep, the sun will be up.”  That’s my favourite line.

Mummy Angie’s Review

Mem Fox is one of our favourite authors.  We own almost all her books and each of the children has taken to different ones at different times.  My personal favourite is Koala Lou but I will save my rambling for when I review that book.

Time for Bed is apparently Mem Fox’s best-selling title in the US.  (She is an Australian author.)  Daniel has been taking this out for me to read every night for too many nights now.  🙂  On each double page spread, there is a drawing of a parent and baby animal, and two rhyming lines:

It’s time for bed, little mouse, little mouse,
Darkness is falling all over the house.

It’s time for bed, little goose, little goose,
The stars are out and on the loose.

It’s time for bed, little cat, little cat,
So snuggle in tight, that’s right, like that.

A lovely drowsy-ing (is there such a word?) book just perfect for a short read before bedtime when I’m too tired to indulge Daniel in a longer book.  I also appreciate that she uses the proper words to name some of the young – foal, calf.  But for rhyming purposes, she also uses “little cat” instead of kitten and “pup” instead of puppy.  I understand.  🙂

Mice Twice

Title: Mice Twice
Author: Joseph Low
Publisher: Aladdin Paperbacks
ISBN: 9780689878329

Nathalie’s Review (at age 8)

One day Cat invites Mouse for tea, but actually he wants to eat her.  Mouse says she will go and will bring a friend.  So Cat thinks, “Mice Twice.”  But Mouse brings Dog so Cat can’t eat Mouse.  And the next day, Cat brings Wolf to Dog’s house, hoping to eat both Dog and Mouse but beside Dog was Crocodile.

While I was reading this book for the first time, I thought, “Poor Mouse.”  But then when I figured out that Cat didn’t have a chance to eat Mouse, then I was happy again.  🙂  I found the book both funny and a bit scary because I thought that some animals would be eaten up.  But when I first saw this book, I didn’t see Mouse in the tree, so I thought it had to be a boy mouse, but it turned out to be a girl.  I found the end very funny.

Mummy Angie’s Review

A cute little book about Mouse outwitting Cat, and an easy introduction to the math concept of doubling.  Cat thinks he is going to have both Mouse and her friend for tea, so MICE TWICE.  But then Dog appears and he is TWICE as big as Cat.  In retaliation, Cat brings Wolf to Dog’s house, and Wolf is TWICE as big as Dog but FOUR TIMES as fierce.  Also references to time.  The animals agree to meet at 6 o’clock, 7 o’clock and 8 o’clock.

Pushti

Title: Pushti
Author: K. Nixon
Publisher: Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd., London, 1956
ISBN: Too old for one

Nathalie’s Review (at age 8)

Pushti is a little kitten who wants to see the world and he wandered so far that he couldn’t find his home anymore.  But then when he was sleeping in a basket, the next door dog picked him up and brought him back home.  And his mother was so pleased that she forgot to scold him.  This story is about his adventures and how some animals helped him by pulling him out of the water, and getting him warm.

I found this book touching and I thought Pushti was lucky because his mother forgot to scold him.  I like cats but if I were to have a pet, I would choose to have either a dog or a chick.

Mummy Angie’s Review

An “old” book we picked up at a secondhand bookstore in Kingston, Ontario.  There are illustrations on every page, but only alternate pages are in colour.  The text is longer than your typical picture book, so good for a reader who is transitioning from reading picture books to reading chapter books.  The illustrations of the animals are wonderful and realistic as the author/illustrator was an animal lover and artist who lived in India for a time.  Hence the very Indian name for the cat.

Comet’s Nine Lives

Title: Comet’s Nine Lives
Author: Jan Brett
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 0590109723

Nathalie’s Review (at age 8)

This is a touching book about a cat named Comet who spends his time wandering and looking for a place to belong.  He doesn’t think much about his nine lives until he loses one, then another, and another until he has lost eight lives.  Then a wave washes him into a lighthouse and there he finds a friend and after that he knew exactly where he was going to live for the rest of his life.

Mummy Angie’s Review

The story is set in a dog-town of sorts.  Comet and the lighthouse cat are the only two cats in the story and they know that something is missing in their lives, and when they find each other, they realise that what they both needed was each other.  Each time Comet lost a life, it is pictured as a cat angel flying off.  Nathalie didn’t think twice about it, but I can see this being an issue with a sensitive child.