Books About Point of View: They All Saw a Cat

This is the third of what may turn out to be a longer than initially planned series of reviews. The thing is, that while I do enjoy a good pointless children's book once and awhile, that books that delight, inspire and teach are far more...well...important I think.

This is another of these types of books for children.

They All Saw a Cat is by Bendan Wenzel who is a Brooklyn New York based author illustrator who, with several amazing books under his belt, seems destined for colorful literary greatness.

Like Do You Believe in Unicorns and  A Tale of Two Beasts, They All Saw a Cat looks at an object, you can probably guess what it is, from different perspectives. The twist here is that those perspectives are radically different from an illustration point based on who's perspective it is.

This is another book where the discussion, facilitated by one of our library media specialists, was a full on full class discussion. Students were explaining the perspectives shown in the illustrations from their own perspectives. It was a truly joyous event to witness.

This is a 2017 Caldecott Honor Book so you know that the judges saw something special in the illustrations and they were 100% correct. The illustrations here are so smart, so well thought out and so wonderful that the book just sort of swirls around you when you read it. It pulls you in and you enjoy being there.

Author: Brendan Wenzel
Illustrator: the author
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 44
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1452150133
ISBN-13: 978-1452150130
Date: 2016
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Price: $9.75 (at the time of this post)
Where to buy: Amazon