Matilda's Cat

by Emily Gravett, Emily Gravett (Illustrator)

Overview

This delightful picture book with Emily Gravett’s signature twist ending sweetly depicts the relationship between a child and her beloved pet.

Matilda is desperate to figure out what her cat will enjoy. She tries everything she can think of: climbing trees, playing with wool, even tea parties and dress-up games, but as Matilda gets more and more creative in her entertainment attempts, her cat moves from unimpressed to terrified. Will Matilda ever figure out what her cat likes?

In the style of Dogs and Monkey and Me, this young picture book from Emily Gravett is an insightful, fond, and funny look at the relationship between a little girl and her cat that’s sure to strike a chord with anyone who’s ever loved a pet.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442475274
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	03/18/2014
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	9.90(w) x 10.20(h) x 0.20(d)
Lexile:	AD460L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Emily Gravett is the author and illustrator of many children’s books, including Matilda’s Cat, Again!, Little Mouse’s Big Book of Fears (winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal), Meerkat Mail, Tidy, and Old Hat. Her first book, Wolves, was the winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor Award for Illustration. Her second book, Orange Pear Apple Bear, was a Quills Award finalist, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year, and on the shortlist for the Kate Greenaway Medal. Emily lives in Brighton, England, with her partner, their daughter, and the family dog. Visit her at EmilyGravett.com.

Emily Gravett is the author and illustrator of many children’s books, including Matilda’s Cat, Again!, Little Mouse’s Big Book of Fears (winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal), Meerkat Mail, Tidy, and Old Hat. Her first book, Wolves, was the winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor Award for Illustration. Her second book, Orange Pear Apple Bear, was a Quills Award finalist, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year, and on the shortlist for the Kate Greenaway Medal. Emily lives in Brighton, England, with her partner, their daughter, and the family dog. Visit her at EmilyGravett.com.

Editorial Reviews

Gravett's charming pictures of the determined girl and her skeptical cat are full of funny details as the two struggle to figure out what they have in common.

The New York Times Book Review - Sarah Harrison Smith

01/06/2014
Gravett’s humor generally runs from giddy to Gothic; in this story, it’s toward the sweeter end of the spectrum. Dressed in a cat costume, Matilda makes ambitious plans for her cat—and her cat ignores them. The text consists of pencil-scrawled lists of things that her cat “likes,” which get crossed out as they fail to prove true. “Matilda’s cat likes playing with wool,” writes Gravett (Again!) as the cat cowers behind the yarn basket. Matilda tries stacking cardboard boxes into a playhouse (“playing with wool, boxes”) and pedaling a trike (“playing with wool, boxes, and riding bikes!”); the cat leaps in the other direction. It turns out that a good cuddle is all it wants. The cumulative pile-up of failures, comic in itself, is augmented with many smaller giggles (a tea party in which Matilda gets all the treats and the cat is left with a banana). Both cat and child project a wild and humorous range of emotion, from the cat’s terror at a canine shadow puppet to Matilda’s perturbation that her pet would rather lick itself indecorously than participate in her best-laid plans. Ages 4–8. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

*"The interplay between Emily Gravett's text and artwork are as humorous as the interactions of Matilda and her cat...Every child will be able to relate to Matilda's comical attempts to lure in her cat, and her complete inability to do so."

starred review Shelf Awareness

"[Matilda] resembles Sendak’s Max both in her furry outfit and clamorous demeanor...The contradiction between the text and the put-upon cat’s comical expressions is the real hoot here, and young pet owners will particularly relate to Matilda’s desire to have her cat behave according to her whims."

BCCB

"Gravett’s charming pictures of the determined girl and her skeptical cat are full of funny details as the two struggle to figure out what they have in common."

New York Times Book Review

★ 2014-01-08
A master of animal countenance, Gravett pairs an expressive cat with a busy kid and winks at the difference between textual and visual message. Matilda likes many things, including riding bikes, climbing trees, funky hats and fighting foes. Each spread shows Matilda playing at one thing while the text claims that her orange tabby enjoys it. "Matilda's cat likes playing with wool," it begins, as rosy-cheeked Matilda romps inside a huge, multicolored wool tangle and launches a ball of yarn toward the cat. He looks up with wide-eyed trepidation. On the next page, the words "playing with wool" are neatly crossed out and replaced by the word "boxes": The narration now admits that tabby doesn't like playing with wool but instead claims he likes Matilda's box-stacking-and-hiding game (actually he looks alarmed). This pattern continues, the text asserting and then retracting (with cross-outs) what the cat likes. A tea party dismays him, as Matilda serves him an unpeeled banana. A bedtime story causes stiff-tailed, whiskers-on-end terror—though is it due to Matilda's storybook, Gravett's own Dogs (2010), or the large dog/wolf shadow puppet casually cast by her chubby fingers? Matilda sports a head-to-toe tabby suit, linking cat and girl all along; the shrewd and skillful art implies sly underlying affection even when the cat's nonplussed, worried or asleep. Even Matilda's cat would like this. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews