Fat Cat: A Danish Folktale
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Have you ever heard the saying, Your eyes are bigger than your stomach? Well, Cat's stomach is bigger than a lot of things. He is always hungry, and living with culinary-inclined Mouse, who makes thirty-five pies in one day, just makes it worse. Fat Cat swallows everything in sight, including the washlady and her washtub, a troop of soldiers and their swords, even a king and his elephant! But when Cat swallows Mouse and her sewing basket, that's the last straw. Tiny Mouse cuts to the heart of ....School Library JournalK-Gr 4-MacDonald uses short, rhythmic sentences and repeated refrains to keep this tale of a greedy cat that lives with a mouse flowing. One day, he eats 35 pies. Then with a "slip slop, sluuurp," he proceeds to eat a wash lady and her laundry, some soldiers and their swords, the king and his elephant, and, finally, the mouse and her sewing supplies. Of course, Mouse cuts her way out and the others follow. After that, Cat eats more sparingly and others treat him with respect. Paschkis's folklike artwork has an open, uncluttered look. Individual objects curve along and around the pages on white backgrounds, lending focus to the feline as he becomes progressively larger after devouring each new morsel. One exception to this pattern is the spread that shows everything in the cat's stomach, all on a black background. It's dark in there! A page of notes explains the source of this story. Pair it with Jack Kent's The Fat Cat (Scholastic, 1971), a more humorous version, to show how different illustrated retellings can be.-Kathleen Simonetta, Indian Trails Public Library District, Wheeling, IL Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
