How To Be a Cat product reviews

Miss Four and Mr Two love books about animals; I shared "Duck Goes Meow" with them some time ago, so I knew they would love "How To Be A Cat" too. Miss Four is able to make out some of the words now, so she immediately picked out "cat" and "Duck". The text is simple and very accessible to pre-schoolers. Miss Four was able to follow it without difficulty; Mr Two needed some help, but the passing of a few months and an interim birthday have shown just how quickly children mature. He has graduated from pictures-only to being able to understand most of a simple storyline - not to mention a newly acquired ability to talk, something he now does nonstop!

Miss Four was interested in Mama's colour. She asked if lots of cats were blue, and wondered why the kittens were not the same colour as their mother. This led to a discussion on diversity and being happy with whoever you are, even if you are a duck trying to model yourself on your cat siblings. She thought Mama was most supportive and loved the way she encouraged Duck to be confident when the other cats made fun of him. It was hard for her brother to get a word in because she is just as chatty as he is!

There were quite a few questions that came up after we had read the book a couple of times. Did kittens hatch from eggs just as ducklings do? And did they all have names? She thought the pink one might be called Jelly because she looked like a wobbly pink jelly when she was climbing the tree, and the blue one was probably called Blueberry because the colour reminded her of her mother's favourite yoghurt flavour! Mr Two finally managed to insert his comment: he pointed to the kittens in the tree and said, "Fall down!" He knows he is not allowed to climb on to unsafe objects, so it is good that he remembered that lesson.

There were two words that excited both the children. "POUNCE!" was their signal to echo the word while jumping on to an invisible foe. And "PURR", the last word in the book, was echoed over and over as they tried to get the sound just right. Miss Four managed a creditable purring sound, but Mr Two produced more of a grunt. However, once they had finished echoing, they both got the giggles.

We liked everything about this book - and now that they have both the books, no doubt the first one will be brought out too so they can "read" them together. The print is clear and easy to read - Miss Four learned to sound out several new words after she had leafed through the pages several times. The graphics are clear and easy to discern, although I would have preferred a little more contrast to highlight the various cats' colours. Mr Two delighted in pointing out the mice which made an occasional appearance. (They might have been rats. We were not sure!) All in all, this book was a lot of fun; there is nothing like learning life lessons such as not giving up and respecting other people while you are enjoying yourself!