AWhimsical Read-aloud for Cat Lovers

The Adventures of Miss Petitfour

By Anne Michaels

Age Range: 6 - 9 years

Grade Level: 1 - 4

Hardcover: 144 pages

Publisher: Tundra Books (November 3, 2015)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1770495002  

ISBN-13: 978-1770495005

Approximate Lexile: 1380

 

Publisher’s Blurb:

Miss Petitfour enjoys having adventures that are "just the right size - fitting into a single, magical day." She is an expert at baking and eating fancy iced cakes, and her favorite mode of travel is par avion. On windy days, she takes her sixteen cats out for an airing: Minky, Misty, Taffy, Purrsia, Pirate, Mustard, Moutarde, Hemdela, Earring, Grigorovitch, Clasby, Captain Captain, Captain Catkin, Captain Cothespin, Your Shyness and Sizzles. With the aid of her favorite tea party tablecloth as a makeshift balloon, Miss Petitfour and her charges fly over her village, having many little adventures along the way. Join Miss Petitfour and her equally eccentric felines on five magical outings -- a search for marmalade, to a spring jumble sale, on a quest for "birthday cheddar", the retrieval of a lost rare stamp and as they compete in the village's annual Festooning Festival. A whimsical, beautifully illustrated collection of tales that celebrates language, storytelling and small pleasures, especially the edible kind!

 

My Thoughts:

My eight-year-old daughter and I loved the story and the charming illustrations. It reminded me—and my mother—a lot of the Mary Poppins books.

 

The repetition of the 16 cats’ names is a staple for children’s literature. For us in particular, we found the extended and voluminous last names of many of the characters to be a tongue-in-cheek parody of how hyphenated some of our fellow Brits are.

 

The short stories are more about adventure and the personalities of the cats than they are about the humans—although  nearly every human in these stories has his or her own eccentricity.

 

A side-effect of the narration is that it teaches about literary elements and narration. It is obvious that the author loves words, and thinks children should love words, too. (I don’t disagree—my high school English students have shockingly poor vocabularies.) However, this is also a downfall to the book. The target audience is grades 1-4, but the long and complex sentences, as well as the higher-level vocabulary, bring it to a Lexile level around 1380. This translates to about a 10^th grade level and puts it on a par with Pride and Prejudice.

 

This presents somewhat of a problem. Even with the illustrations 144 pages is a lot for a first grader, and the text complexity is out of reach. For us, this was a great read-aloud book, with one of the short stories/chapters per session. This was nice, since my daughter is an advanced reader and didn’t really want read-alouds much any more. Perfect snuggle time!

 

Possible Objectionable Material:

This is a children’s book. About all I can think of is that some people like children’s literature to be firmly rooted in reality, and this book does have some whimsical/semi-magical elements.

 

Who Would Like This Book:

Anyone who likes cats, whimsy, words, and a great read-aloud.

 

Thank you, Net Galley for the advance reader ebook.

Predictable middle-ages romance

Chivalrous

By Dina Slieman
Series: Valiant Hearts (Book 2)
Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Bethany House Publishers (September 8, 2015)
ISBN-10: 076421313X
ISBN-13: 978-0764213137
Approximate Lexile: 750

Publisher’s Blurb:

Strong and adventurous Gwendolyn Barnes longs to be a knight like her chivalrous brothers. However, that is not an option for her, not even in the Arthurian-inspired Eden where she dwells. Her parents view her only as a marriage pawn, and her domineering father is determined to see her wed to a brutish man who will break her spirit.

When handsome, good-hearted Allen of Ellsworth arrives in Edendale searching for his place in the world, Gwendolyn spies in him the sort of fellow she could imagine marrying. Yet fate seems determined to keep them apart. Tournaments, intrigue, and battles--along with twists and turns aplenty--await these two as they struggle to find love, identity, and their true destinies.

My Thoughts:

A little predictable. I already knew how Gwendolyn and Allen would meet, long before they did, in fact, meet that way. The writing is fine, although some of the dialogue, in the attempt to be representative of the time period, comes off sounded stilted.

Slieman seems to have done her homework, and explains her worldbuilding in her notes at the end of the book.

There’s a definite divide in the characters—basically, they’re obvious “good guys” or obvious “bad guys.” There are very few who have a mixture of those qualities.

Gwendolyn is a little too good to be true—beautiful, strong, has cute dogs, kind to her servant, develops a testimony of God. Allen—well, he’s a paragon, too. Even their faults are attractive.

My favorite scene might just be the one in which Gwendolyn calls out her father and they have a fistfight. There’s no redeeming quality about the man at all—a flat, stock character.

Rosalind, Gwendolyn’s maid, is a more interesting and complex character, who faces deeply affecting choices—and their consequences. It is too bad that she is allowed to simply disappear from the story without any actual resolution. Some are speculating that she will be the focus of the next book in the series.

That said, I have not read the first book of the series, and did not find that to be a problem. Yes, characters from the first appear in the second, but it is not necessary to know the details of their backstory.

 Possible objectionable material:

Out-of-wedlock pregnancy, followed by abortion. Murder. Violence (hey, it’s what knights do.) Spousal/child abuse. None of this is particularly graphic, but it is there. Make no mistake—this is Christian fiction. An important facet of the characters’ inner lives is their relationship with God. If you are not religious, this could range from mildly annoying to downright incomprehensible.

Who would like this book:

Readers of Christian fiction, young adult romance, stories about knights and chivalry. Since there are multiple POVs, it is not actually dominated by males or females. Approximate Lexile: 750.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the advance reader e-book.