Cat Skidoo

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Cat Skidoo
AuthorBethany Roberts
IllustratorR. W. Alley
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreChildren's fiction
PublishedMay 2004[1]
PublisherHenry Holt & Company[2]
Pages36[1] (unpaged)[2]
ISBN0-8050-6710-8

Cat Skidoo is a 2004 book by Bethany Roberts, with illustrations by R. W. Alley. About two kittens who cause havoc exploring their home surroundings, it received positive reviews.

Synopsis[edit]

Two kittens have fun exploring around the house and the yard in a game called "cat skidoo", "which seems to entail chasing everything that moves while wreaking havoc."[1]

Background[edit]

This was the second Bethany Roberts book to feature cats as main characters, after 1997's Cat Parade.[3][4]

Reception[edit]

On its original publication, Cat Skidoo received positive reviews. Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, and the School Library Journal praised Roberts' "rhythmic", "rollicking" rhymes and Alley's watercolor work.[1][2][5] SLJ's Marge Loch-Wouters called it a "bouncy tribute to feline exuberance...[f]eaturing plenty of white space and lending a sense of nonstop motion".[2] Booklist's Carolyn Phelan said it was "Fun for reading aloud", adding: "Alley's lively ink drawings make the most of the kittens' innocent curiosity and playful high jinks, giving children lots of visual action to enjoy as the simple story rolls along."[5] According to Kirkus, "The kittens are expressive without being too anthropomorphic."[1] Despite the "anticlimatic ending", Nell Beram of The Horn Book Guide admitted that "for the littlest readers[,] the ride will be worth it."[6]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e "Review: 'Cat Skidoo'". Kirkus Reviews. No. 9. May 1, 2004. ISSN 1948-7428. ProQuest 917138075. Retrieved July 29, 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d Loch-Wouters, Marge (June 2004). "Review: 'Cat Skidoo'". School Library Journal. Vol. 50, no. 6. p. 117. ISSN 0362-8930. Retrieved July 29, 2023 – via ProQuest.
  3. ^ Kumar, Lisa, ed. (2010). "Roberts, Bethany 1949–". Something About the Author. Vol. 202. Gale Research. p. 153. ISBN 978-1-4144-3499-5. Retrieved July 29, 2023 – via Internet Archive.
  4. ^ Ward, Caroline (January 1997). "Review: 'Cat Parade'". School Library Journal. Vol. 43, no. 1. p. 90. ISSN 0362-8930. Retrieved July 29, 2023 – via ProQuest.
  5. ^ a b Phelan, Carolyn (June 1–15, 2004). "Review: 'Cat Skidoo'". Booklist. Vol. 100, no. 19/20. p. 1748. ISSN 0006-7385. Retrieved July 29, 2023 – via ProQuest.
  6. ^ Beram, Nell (Fall 2004). "Preschool: 'Cat Skidoo'" (PDF). The Horn Book Guide. Vol. 15, no. 2. p. 325. ISSN 1044-405X. Retrieved July 29, 2023 – via ProQuest. Another Roberts book, Fourth of July Mice!, was reviewed in the same issue.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)