ISBN: 0805057455
Everything Mama Cat does her kittens Fluffy & Skinny do also. But her third kitten, Boris, spends most of the book sleeping.
The characters are revealed through their actions. While Fluffy and Skinny wash their paws and chase leaves with Mama Cat, Boris naps. The pictures show the two kittens being active, while Boris is off napping somewhere. Then when Fluffy and Skinny and Mama nap, the illustration shows Boris flying through the air to pounce.
Children will enjoy the story as well as the illustrations. They will want to know if Boris ever does anything other than nap. They will also enjoy spotting the mouse and other creatures that are semi hidden in the illustrations. Readers who have pets will recognize characteristics of their own pets in the kittens. They will notice that Boris sleeps just like their hamster likes to sleep, or Fluffy and Skinny always do the same thing just like their two dogs always do the same things. Younger children will also enjoy the repetition of phrases and actions (Publishers Weekly).
The setting is important to this story. The outdoor backyard setting gives the cats opportunities to do things that they wouldn�t be able to do inside, such as chase leaves and scratch their claws on trees. The setting also gave the author the opportunity to hide other animals in the illustrations for children to try to find and identify.
This story has very little text, but more text isn't necessary because of the descriptive illustrations. The pictures could tell the story without any text at all. The illustrations resemble watercolor and the kittens are drawn in a fuzzy almost abstract way. Mama Cat's fur is an unusual color that gives her both "dimension and significance (Publishers Weekly). The bright colors and cute kittens will appeal to children, and they will enjoy seeing what the kittens do next
Amazon.com. 1998. Publishers Weekly. Available from
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0805071628/102-0505924-
0790555?%5Fencoding=UTF8&n=283155. Accessed 7 September 2004.
