Review by Booklist Review
First, some instructions: the assembly of a string ball is simple, though there's a small test of patience as it dries. But once it's assembled, it makes a surprisingly effective travel vessel, as a skinny black cat proves throughout this mostly wordless story. After the kitty's owner takes off for a day of outdoor fun, the cat, fixated on fantasies of outdoor adventures with its owner, accidentally enters the string ball and a grand journey (that the cat admittedly cannot see) ensues. It bounces out the door and is treated as a dog toy, lifted off and dropped down a slide, bopped into a stroller, and more. The ball is a striking red against black and white sketches, and thanks to a helpful squirrel and convenient circumstances, the cat (inside the ball) ends up back in its owner's backpack and headed home. While not a particularly complicated story, this work of limited words is a fun little adventure of a classically mischievous cat getting into a pickle.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Crafting meets cat curiosity in this purr-fectly elegant, nearly wordless story from Monroe (Sasquatch and Squirrel). Step-by-step instructions for making a hollow globe kick things off, showing a child covering a balloon with bright red string and a glue mixture. After the sphere dries overnight and the balloon is popped and removed, the youth departs, backpack in tow, leaving behind both the creation and a little black cat with saucer eyes. Yearning to adventure with its human, the kitty is nevertheless drawn to the string ball, and it crawls into an opening, thus setting in motion a series of mishaps worthy of Wile E. Coyote. As the bright red orb bounces through an otherwise largely b&w world rendered in eloquently scratchy lines, the pages reveal the oblivious players who interact with what seems to be an ordinary ball alongside a cutaway of the comically discombobulated kitty inside. A length of string divides the page between the two views as dogs chase the sphere, pigeons peck at it, a bird sends it careening down a slide, and a baby gleefully drops it from a carriage. Finally, thanks to a squirrel with yearnings of its own, ball and cat end up safely back home and ready for a nap, their arrival slyly suggesting a mystery to the child. Human skin tones echo the white of the page. Ages 4--8. (May)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3--Wordless picture books can be so surprising. The red balloon takes readers on a wild adventure as if it is a typical main character. But then, maybe the main character is the little girl who wrapped string and glue around a red balloon, making it sturdier for travel. Still, a case could be made that the kitten, who works itself into the balloon and begins to roll off the table and out the door, should be considered the star of the show. It couldn't be the squirrel, could it? This is an appealing story that wordlessly conveys plenty of adventure, and by the scattering of all the clues, allows children to put the pieces together to arrive at a satisfying conclusion. Considering the characters and their part in the adventure will help readers create meaning. Reluctant readers can easily enjoy this book using an entirely different code than their fellow students. Making meaning is the point, whether it is achieved by decoding words or pictures. This would make a great writing assignment for all students, and it would be interesting to see what different conclusions are drawn. VERDICT A fun book that requires a sense of story and an attention to detail.--Joan Kindig
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A naughty black cat embarks on a wild adventure. When its young owner leaves for a bike ride with friends, the lonely kitten decides to play with the child's homemade, hardened string ball. The kitten paws it, then finds itself engulfed by the huge ball. Soon the ball rolls off, escaping the confines of the house and taking the kitten with it. Monroe cleverly bisects the pages, offering images of the young cat within the ball alongside shots of the wider world outside. Over the course of the narrative, the ball is shaken, tossed, pecked, lifted in the air by a bird, dropped, and gnawed upon by squirrels. When the kitten finally relocates its owner, it manages to finagle itself into the child's backpack and, ultimately, back home. Yet for the story to work, Monroe must, at the book's start, shoehorn in an awkward section clarifying how to make a hardened "string ball," alongside its rudimentary mechanics. Aside from these instructions, this tale is told entirely through its art. The red of the string, the ball, and the broken heart of the kitten remain the only points of color in a book that's an exercise in minimalism and visual storytelling. The primary human character has skin the white of the page. Featuring spare visuals yet extravagant in its storytelling, a satisfying tale for impatient kittens everywhere.(Picture book. 3-6) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
