The Cat Who Wouldn't Come Inside
Cynthia von Buhler, . . Houghton, $16 (40pp) ISBN 978-0-618-56314-2
This cumulative story, told through staged photographs of an elaborate dollhouse set with characters created from clay, concerns a feral feline who is gradually coaxed into domestic life. "Come inside, kitty!" urges the genteel red-headed narrator when she spots a cat shivering on her snow-covered porch. This invitation, along with the response—"The cat ran away"—becomes the book's two-part refrain as the patient lady offers an ever-growing number of incentives to her visitor. As the list grows to "some warm milk, a plate of tuna, a catnip mouse, a soft rug, a ball of yarn, and a cozy armchair," the cat's defenses seem to melt (the yarn ball sends him into a Zen-like contentment). But he still insists on domesticity on his own terms; not until the narrator turns her porch into an open-air parlor does the cat settle in for good. Von Buhler's (
Reviewed on: 09/18/2006
Genre: Children's
Open Ebook - 40 pages - 978-0-547-56186-8
Other - 40 pages - 978-0-547-76766-6