Come Down Cat Review




Come Down Cat Review: Sonya Hartnett has once more teamed with Lucia Masciullo to create a new picture book for younger readers. Come Down Cat begins with its young protagonist, Nicholas, presented with a problem: how to get the cat down from the roof.


It was getting dark, you see, and Nicholas was not at all comfortable with his cat being stuck outside on the roof at night. The roof of the house is quite a formidable height, and little Nicholas very bravely - or foolishly - climbs a creaking ladder to the roof to rescue his cat.


The cat, with typical feline behaviour, eludes Nicholas' grasp and sprints to the top of the roof.


Nicholas retires, defeated, to bed only to be awakened later that night by his cat's frantic cries as it tries desperately to escape the falling drops of rain...


Come Down Cat is a welcome new addition from Sonya Hartnett. Perhaps due to her strengths as a novelist, Sonya Hartnett's picture books for younger readers have a very definite and recognizable story grammar structure. This is certainly true of Sonya Hartnett's previous picture book, The Boy and the Toy, which also has a compelling narrative and satisfying conclusion.


Come Down Cat Review cont...


Come Down Cat has a slightly different structure in that the story begins with a the boy anxious about his cat's safety being stuck on the roof in the dark. The difference between this story's structure and The Boy and the Toy is that the problem with the toy of the title surfaced about a third of the way into the book.


Lucia Masciullo has provided a series of beautiful pastel illustrations to accompany the text. They complement the story well.


Come Down Cat is recommended for children between 6-8 years of age. The fry reading graph indicates that the story is recommended for grades 2-3.


Return from Come Down Cat Review to 1st Grade Books

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