Thursday, 4 April 2019
"Big Cat" by Emma Lazell (Pavilion Children's Books)
Labels:
Big Cat,
Emma Lazell,
Pavilion Children's Books
An 11 year old's critique can be withering at times, and that's pretty much how our review of "Big Cat" by Emma Lazell began.
In fact, "Big Cat" might bear a tiny resemblance to the aforementioned classic, heck it even rather cheekily references that very book (with a tiny tweak or two to avoid any copyright issues) within the story of a little girl called Isobel who is rather surprised to find her beloved Grandmother taking a rather large moggy under her wing.
You see, the delightful old dear has lost her glasses and she can't see a thing without them.
So the big cat moves in with them, much to the disgust of all gran's other cats. He might be good fun, but he takes up lots of space and eats every scrap of food (strangely he stops short of drinking all the water in the tap, I mean who'd put something as daft as that in a book, tschhh!)
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| Big cat with a giraffe-like neck! |
The story takes an amusing twist when the big cat's mum and dad turn up, looking for their missing son.
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| Cheeky reference, all things considered! |
Thankfully the big moggy's parents have found Gran's glasses which leads to much amusement as she realises who she's been sharing her house with after all!
We're slightly bemused by this book, C more so than I. Trying to explain that the publishing industry is a mysterious beast and sometimes books that feel VERY LIKE other books can still get the green light, when others are passed up is extremely difficult but I gave it my best shot with C and this one.
I mean it really isn't just a copy-paste job of Judith Kerr's legendary classic, it has a wibbly-wobbly charm of its own but there's undeniably something missing, and we can't quite define what that 'missing' thing is. At times it feels like it's trying to make a point that dotty old grans can be fun in a book when the kids are in on the gag.
Perhaps it's just better to take it as it is, as a quirky story of hulking great big tigers, mistaken identities and the fun of a little girl who knows what's going on the whole time - with a couple of ticklish moments, huge toddler appeal and a fresh, original art feel to it.
Perhaps it's just better to take it as it is, as a quirky story of hulking great big tigers, mistaken identities and the fun of a little girl who knows what's going on the whole time - with a couple of ticklish moments, huge toddler appeal and a fresh, original art feel to it.
Sum this book up in a sentence: Ticklish tiger fun for the very young, and for those who've got more than enough room in their collection for more than one tiger-based book.
"Big Cat" by Emma Lazell is out today, published by Pavilion Children's Books (kindly supplied for review).
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