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 10th 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.
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