There Are NO Cats in this Book, Viviane Schwarz (Walker, 2011)
I’ve mentioned before how much the whole family enjoys There Are Cats in this Book by award-winning illustrator Viviane Schwarz. It’s a wonderfully interactive picture book that’s still popular with fils aîné and which fils cadet is now getting really into. The author bio explains that she didn’t think most books had enough cats in them, so she set out to write one that did. It stars three cats: Tiny, Moonpie and André, and addresses the reader directly, inviting the child to turn pages, lift flaps, open boxes and blow on the page etc. with surprising results.
Anyway, it finishes up by asking:
Will you come and play with us again soon, really soon?
And yesterday we got the sequel out of the library. There Are NO Cats in this Book features the same trio of felines, but this time they’re trying to leave the book and go out to see the world. They’re having a few problems getting out, though, and ask the reader to help. Of course it’s all very postmodern and meta, but they do make it out in the end and send you a postcard to prove it, before returning to find you waiting for them. But then they’ve brought all their new friends back to meet you, so there are in fact a lot of cats in the book.
FA likes to read it to himself, FC likes to have it read to him and we like reading it – everyone wins. Great fun for all young and old alike, and even people who don’t like cats, although I still prefer the original personally.
