Review by Booklist Review
Clearly a keen observer of cats, Rosen offers 20 haiku, each spotlighting a different breed of cats and often reflecting its traits. In 10 poems, cats explore the world outdoors, while the rest capture cats during indoor moments. The verse Norwegian Forest Cat reads, caught among branches / fog descends the trunk headfirst / one foot at a time. In Balinese, a girl pours dry food into her cat's bowl, while nearby on the windowsill's / balance beam, the cat pirouettes / as the kibble pings. The subtitle will guide cat-lovers to this pleasing poetry book, but what's a Maine coon? According to Rosen's appended notes on 20 cat breeds, this gentle giant of a feline was the first long-haired cat to arise naturally in the United States. Often clarifying and enhancing the verse for young readers, White's digital illustrations combine a sense of spontaneity in line work with strong composition and interesting textures. A worthy companion to Rosen's The Hound Dog's Haiku and Other Poems for Dog Lovers (2011).--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2015 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Rosen and White follow The Cuckoo's Haiku and The Hound Dog's Haiku with 20 haikus devoted to cats, paired with grainy, atmospheric illustrations. Rosen highlights Russian Blues, Birmans, Abyssinians, and more as the book transitions between indoor and outdoor scenes with cats sprawling languidly, on moonlit prowls, tiptoeing through flowers, or in mid-spring. White's backdrops include the edge of a swimming pool ("sun-baked umbrella/ iced-tea glass sweats, pools-first drip/ wakes the sleeping cat"); a village veranda, which serves as a perch for a Manx to gaze over apricot rooftops; and a country store ("outside the old store/ more strays sun as the screen door/ bangs-bangs shut, again"). Each exquisitely crafted poem and image captures the personalities of the cats, the diversity of settings, and the quiet magic of each moment. Ages 6-9. Illustrator's agent: Paul Rodeen, Rodeen Literary Management. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-5-The brevity and poignancy of the haiku format perfectly capture the feline essence in this book of verse. Each spread defines an individual breed, some familiar and others less so, with a deft haiku and an inviting illustration about a brief moment. "American Shorthair" ("outside the old store/more strays sun as the screen door/bangs-bangs shut, again") depicts a slow, warm scene evoking senses of touch, sight, and sound, while "Turkish Angora" ("whooshing down the hall:/Angora, then her all-white/dust devil of hair") creates the feeling of speed and energy, with an image of a blur of white cat leaving fur balls in her wake. With rich colors and detailed, scratchy lines, each illustration uses clever page layouts and line work to convey movement or stillness as the featured cats dictate. Broken into alternating sections of "Inside" and "Outside," the book evokes the mood of the indecisive cat who always wants in-and, just as quickly-back out again. The volume concludes with back matter that provides a little more concrete information about each breed. Fans of the author's other collections, The Cuckoo's Haiku: And Other Birding Poems (2009) and The Hound Dog's Haiku: And Other Poems for Dog Lovers (2011, both Candlewick), will lap this one right up. VERDICT This attractive, delightful volume will enchant cat lovers and is a great selection for those who want to inject some life into their poetry collections.-Julie Roach, Cambridge Public Library, MA (c) Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Alternating between "Inside" and "Outside," each poem's title is simply the breed name--Maine Coon, Japanese Bobtail, Scottish Fold--while the haiku captures its essence. Each poem is paired with digitally created illustrations with light touches of collage, patterns, and playful scratched lines. An appendix gives additional breed information. (c) Copyright 2015. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A kitty companion to The Cuckoo's Haiku (2009) and The Hound Dog's Haiku (2011).Rosen presents one perfect haikufive-seven-five with a burst of insighteach on 20 different cat breeds. The poems are split into sections called "Inside," followed by "Outside," then "Inside" and finally "Outside," a pattern any human owned by a cat will recognize. The Zen of the "Abyssinian" is emblematic of the whole collection: "curled up on your book / cat won't care what happens next / now's the only page." Each poem is paired with a beautiful, digitally created full-color illustration by White that sometimes is content to illustrate the poem and other times makes its image more clear, as with "Bombay": "paired shadows prowling / in nightfall, but just two lights / pierce that darkness." The double-page spread shows a black cat and its shadow on a dark cityscape in grays and aqua; the two yellow eyes gleam. Though it looks like there are two cats, the shadow, of course, has no eyes. Backmatter includes a few short paragraphs of information on each breed, ranging from historical to behavioral. Norwegian forest cats love to be handled, for example, and the Scottish fold originates from a single progenitor, born in 1961. This perfect poetical paean to pussycats makes both a fine gift for a cat lover and an excellent haiku handbook. (Picture book/poetry. 7-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
