So I totally thought I could never adore a literary animal as much as I liked Russel in Scotton's Russel the Sheep, but today I met Splat, and I think Russel may have to move down a spot on my list. Splat is a really fat and frizzy black cat, heading off to his first day of cat school. As his tail "wiggled wildly with worry," Splat decides to bring his pet mouse and best friend, Seymour, to school with him. Well as you can imagine, bringing a mouse to cat school causes all sorts of mayhem. Luckily, being as small as a mouse, Seymour is able to get the door to the milk cupboard unstuck and save both his and Splat's day. For the second day of school, Splat's tail "wiggled wildly with excitement. "
While the cover for Splat the Cat would have you believe that this is just an ordinary cat and mouse tale, every illustration offers something unexpected and whimsical. Whether it be the alarm clock pointed to "too early" or Splat's little mouse slippers or the cat with a cheshire grin full of braces, I found that I scanned every page multiple times to make sure I hadn't missed anything. And don't get me started on how perfectly Splat is drawn in this book. I had a cat that looked a lot like Splat. When our family first got her, we called her Memory, but by the time she was a year old, we called her Tubby most of the time. She weighed 19 pounds and it was all in her stomach. We often wondered how her skinny little legs could hold her up. So not only thanks to Scotton for allowing me a sweet recollection of my fabulous fat cat, but also for sending the message to kids that for all our worrying, most things turn out all right in the end.
If you enjoy this picture book, you might also like Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes.
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