Book of the Week--Kat Kong

How did I ever miss out on this one?! First of all, I love Dav Pilkey's picture books, and having made a point to read all of them, I thought that I had. Secondly, Kat Kong looks just like my cat, Richie, famous for having traveled over from England with us and being the most talkative, daftest, lovable cat I know (I also have a nine lives/reincarnation theory about him, but I won't go into that here.) Kat Kong is a "faithful" adaptation of the King Kong story--about as faithful as you can be using manipulated photo collage and telling the story with mice and a black cat. The book has been rated, just like a film (TS for "terribly silly".) Forget 'terribly' silly--it's wonderfully silly! There are some truly ghastly puns, both in the text and in the pictures. So if you like to groan while you giggle, this is the book for you. Dav Pilkey's website has some fantastic "behind the scenes" info about this book, including the storyboards he drew for Kat Kong and it's companion volume Dogzilla, on-line puzzles and printables from the book, and insider tips about how he managed to get his cat, Blueberry, to make such menacingly goofy expressions. In fact, the site in general is quite cool. Stay awhile and play!

Bedtime Stories

Little Red Riding Hood (Pinkney, Jerry)
At Night (Bean, Jonathan)
Chilly Charlie (Rau, Dana Meredith)
Millie Waits for the Mail (Steffensmeier, Alexander)
Alligator Boy (Rylant, Cynthia and Diane Goode)

A fabulous bunch this evening! I've had my eye on Pinkney's Red Riding Hood since it made its way through Tech Services. It has a very Christmasy feel, with snow covered woods and cardinals to match the tell-tale hood. Pinkney has had a particularly stellar year, IMHO, with Little Red Hen and The All-I'll-Ever-Want Christmas Doll (which he illustrated) also seeing release in 2007.

But the stand out title for me tonight was Millie Waits for the Mail, about a cow who takes great delight in frightening the mail carrier each day. The unexpected canine behavior reminded me of My Cat, the Silliest Cat in the World by Gilles Bachelet. And why is the cat so silly? Because he's an elephant! I love it when reality is thoroughly turned on its head, yet it still makes sense. And following up on yesterday's post about the success of translated books for children, I'd like to point out that both titles are imports: "Millie" from Germany and "Cat" from France.

I've been asked by a loyal reader (so nice to know you are there!) to keep a running list of all the picture books mentioned in this blog. Look for it in the new year.