With a simple little picture book, They All Saw a Cat, Brendan Wenzel gets across a big concept: that an animal or object looks different to everyone who sees it, because each person and creature sees with a unique perspective.
The child sees a friendly pet, but the mouse sees a terrifying monster. The flea sees a forest of fur, while the bat picks up an outline using its echolocation. The cat goes about its day inspiring different emotions in every creature it encounters. There’s even a little surprise at the end, when the cat encounters itself.
Wenzel uses a variety of styles with his illustrations to show the creatures named and to set a mood. Drawings can be soft and fuzzy or sharp and harsh, depending on what’s depicted.
They All Saw a Cat is sure to be a hit with both children and parents, eliciting calls of “read it again,” from kids until they’ve memorized the words.
The publisher provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
I was just reading another review about this book recently; such a simple but engaging concept, with a whole lot of room for playfulness. It would be interesting to have other books in the series, with different animals – like a mouse, or a bear, or a human!