The Broken Cat

Rating:
Summary: A book that resonates with children
Review: Another great kids' book from Lynne Perkins. My five-year-old daughter has taken to "The Broken Cat" to the extent that she has renamed one of our own cats "Frank" after the cat in the book, whose trip to the vet is the trigger for memories by his human owners of past injuries of their own.

Rating:
Summary: Hello kitty
Review: Funny thing. Though I think this is a great book and a really interesting way to introduce kids to notion of personal injuries, I also know for a fact that I could NOT have enjoyed this book as a child. Mind you, this is a strictly personal matter. I well remember another cat based picture book that worried me to no end as a child. If any of you have ever read "The Patchwork Cat", you'll know what I mean. I had a very hard time reading stories where cats were unhappy or in pain. In this particular book, a cat is being taken to the vet because he is acting as if he's hurting. The book doesn't dwell on this aspect and the cat is perfectly fine by the end of the tale, but it probably will disturb some of the more squeamish children out there.

In this lovely intergenerational tale, a boy accompanies his broken cat, his mother, his grandmother, and his aunt to the doctor's office. To comfort the cat, the boy asks his mom to recount how she once broke her own arm. The mom's story of getting "fixed" is paired with the cat's own tale of recovery. Perkins, author of the lovely "Snow Music" (big big recommendation on that one, people!), has penned a really nice story. The best of its kind, perhaps. There are a few books for kids that explain the process of breaking bodily parts and the fixing that follows, but I don't think many are as eloquent as this. Topping off the tale are Perkins' adept illustrations as well. Anyone who has seen a cat in pain will recognize how well the author/illustrator has captured this feline's tightly squeezed eyes and flat ears. At times the pictures slip into a kind of dreamscape. A page quartered into four views of the boy and cat in bed look out on stars, an evening meadow, a misty night, and sunny green field. Other times, there's a nice melding between the text and the pictures. I was especially taken with the title page, on which the portrait of the boy's mother as a girl, pets the cat held by the boy in an opposite portrait. It's a great story with likable characters and an interesting plot. And to top it all off, it serves a need. Simply great.

Rating:
Summary: Boo-Boo reality!
Review: This book quenched my children's curiosity about what happens if you "get a big boo-boo." My kids LOVE to hear "when Mama & Daddy were little" stories, especially if we were hurt (I think it makes us more human to them). This book does just that. We relive the story of how Mom remembers when she was late for school, fell, and broke her arm. She was scared, sad, embarrassed, "broken," and, we find out in the end, also loved, and eventually all better.