Second Book Review: Chester

Greetings Cat Lovers and Pranksters!

Yesterday, I was thinking about another cat book I read to Miss Kitty, my resident instigator. Don't get me wrong, I love Miss Kitty, but she is not the sweetest pet I have or the sweetest cat. Miss Kitty is the first cat I ever had and she will always hold a special place in my heart for that reason. Since day one, Miss Kitty has complex but loving relationship with her favorite dog of all time, Lenny. He is the only dog she really likes because he cares about her, even though she gets right in his face and complains about not being allowed to go outside when she wants to. Miss Kitty does like to hang out with Lenny, but she has never been a fan of Flowers or Buddy and she does not like my cockatiel, Rocky, who is fan of all of the furry family members. Miss Kitty would rather Rocky, Buddy, and Flowers just did not talk to her or bother her. Miss Kitty is a high maintenance girl who also loves her independence.

 Because of Miss Kitty's personality the title character in the book Chester by Melanie Watt is a story that I can relate to. Kids or adults who ever felt the desire to pretend like another person was not around and wanted the world to pay more attention to them will relate well to Chester and his story. The story starts out with the author Melanie Watt telling a story about a mouse, but every time she tries to get past the introduction Chester interrupts her and changes the story by using his red marker and then he makes himself the main character. There are three parts in the book that are my favorite. One of them is when Chester writes an acrostic poem in a story all about himself and in the poem he makes himself out to be the most important one and the envy of the author and the mouse. The other two parts are when mouse comes backs home with a souvenir....a bulldog! and the other is when the author finally puts Chester is his place by dressing him up in a silly outfit. If you want to know what Chester is dressed in, you will have to read the book. I promise it will make you laugh. I think Chester will appeal to any kid who has a sense of humor, any kid who likes to be a prankster, or any cat lover who loves silly characters who also happened to be cats. I think the book would be really cute to have two people, maybe a parent read the author, Melanie's part and then have a child read the red ink text written by Chester. I am sure a lot of giggling would be had by all readers. If you are reading this with a listener, then you could read the story through and then have the child listener give his or her own idea of what it is that Chester wants to say. Sometimes young non-readers love to tell stories based on pictures and Chester has a lot of pictures that are easy for non-readers to understand without text. So, whether you love a picture book for the illustrations or for the overall package of pictures and text, you would enjoy this book.

 Here is a link to the publisher of Chester where you can find more info about this book and its Author/ Illustrator: Kids Can Press. I have not read them yet, but I recently found out that Chester is the first in a series of books about Chester. They are Chester's Back and Chester's Masterpieces which I am sure will be just as enjoyable as the first book. If I get a chance to read them, I will write a review on each of them.

Miss Kitty Fan Forever,
Alesia

P.S. Above is a photo of Miss Kitty and Lenny in front of the window that Lenny eventually concedes to Miss Kitty.

First Cat Book Craft: Ginger Inspired But Flowers Look-alike Cat Puppet

Hello Cat Lovers and Bibliophiles,  

    Last night, I made a very cute cat puppet. I was very much inspired by a particular illustration in a book titled Ginger by Charlotte Voake. Ginger wakes up and sees the new kitten that his owner, the little girl, has brought home and he wonders, "What just happened?" That illustration is quite a common site at our house. Our two cats, Flowers and Miss Kitty like to sleep hard sometimes and then one of their brother dogs, Lenny or Buddy, start barking at a vehicle, an animal, or person that they find out of place and they wake up all of a sudden with a puzzled look on their face and beady eye or eyes. However, If I go into a room to see one of the kitty girls while they are sleeping, they usually just cover their face with one of their front paws. When they do that, it makes me thinking they are telling me, "I may hear you, I may speak to you, but I am not going to let you interrupt one of my ten daily naps if I can help it, so, as far as I know I can't see you right now." If you have a kid or a cat and have also heard the saying "Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil," then I am sure you could relate to Flowers, Miss Kitty or Ginger, the main character in the story by Charlotte Voake of the same name. Sometimes as adults or older siblings, you just want to play "It" in Hide and Seek and have everyone hide and then you can decide when you will seek the others out when you are ready to socialize. I don't recommend doing this game with your own friends or relatives, but with my cat puppet, you can hide your pretend cat's eyes behind its own movable paw and play a similar game of Hide and Not Seek, which would be so much more fun for all involved.

Here is the supplies you will need:

• A photo of your cat or someone else's cat sleeping with one foot visibly hanging to the side of  the cat's head
• A scanner or copier on which you can increase the size of your cat picture to a workable size (I made my cat picture fit into an 8.5 x 11" piece of paper) and copy paper
• Two sheets of white printer copy paper or tracing paper for each cat puppet you plan to make
• A sheet of colored construction paper or cardstock the color of your cat (I used an 8.5 x 11" sheet of  black paper because Flowers is a tuxedo cat. If you have a two-toned cat, try to pick the base coat's color.)
• A sheet of white card stock
• A light table or a window with bright enough light for tracing your cat's silhouette 
• A pencil or pen in dark ink
•  A box of crayons or whichever crayon colors you need to make your cat puppet's coat color purrfect
• A pair of scissors
• A brass brad, average size (Unless you want to make a tiny puppet, then I suggest you use a smaller scrapbook brad)
• A hole punch or craft screw punch (I prefer to use one that makes a small circle hole. A regular hole punch will work, but I prefer the Martha Stewart screw punch because it makes a consistent hole and it is easier to use. Available online and at most major arts and crafts supply stores) 
• Optional: A cutting mat or heavier piece of stiff cardboard for using with the screw punch.

First Step: You need to print out from your computer or make a copy of a cat photograph on a scanner or copier. You want to make sure the cat in the picture you choose will be easy to trace once it is printed out. If using a copy machine, you might need to make more than a couple copies until you get to the desired size. Try increasing size on copier to 100% or 200%. I chose to make mine fit into an 8.5 x 11" space so that it would be an accessible size for a preschooler to manage with a little adult or older child's help. You can make a black and white copy or color copier. Below is the the photo I chose to use

Second Step: Trace your printed cat picture of desired size using tracing paper and a pencil or dark pen. If you are new to tracing: Place the tracing paper on top of your picture and slowly sketch around the outside of your cat picture. You don't need to add much detail to the silhouette except for where the front legs are and where the head is in relation to the front leg you want to move. Note: I was in the planning stages when I traced my cat, so mine has more detail than you actually need in your sketch.

Third Step: Trace your cat outline onto a piece of white cardstock, so you have a thicker pattern piece to work with and then trace the foot you want to be movable on an empty space on your white cardstock. When tracing the foot draw a little farther past so you have enough "leg" to work with. 

 

Fourth Step: Carefully cut out your cat silhouette outline and foot outline with scissors. You can either cut out the silhouette pattern pieces at the same time you cut out your colored construction paper pieces by layering the colored piece underneath or you can cut out the pattern pieces first and then use them to cut around. Whichever way works best for you is fine. Since I did not need two of the same foot, I cut it off of my colored cat silhouette.

Fifth Step: Color your cat silhouette and cat leg with crayons. Add details to make your cat puppet come alive like the cat in your inspiration photo.

Sixth Step: Place leg on top of where you want it to go on your cat and then punch a whole a fourth of an inch from the top of your leg piece.

Because my cat is black and white, I decided to give you an extra photo of the placement of the foot on my cat puppet.

        

 Step Seven: Insert brad in the hole and secure in place. Note: if you don't want to see the brad color, you can add some glue stick glue to a small piece of tissue paper the color of your cat's fur coat and attach to the brad before securing or have an adult color it with a paint pen of corresponding color.

Step Eight: Enjoy your new cat puppet!  I think mine turned out pretty well when you compare the two: the puppet on the left to the photo of Flowers on the right.

Today, I spent some time with Flowers and I took a few pictures of her and her smaller puppet double. I hope you enjoy them! I may post some more photos on The Witty Kitties Facebook page. If you want to see more cat posts other than the cat book reviews on this blog, please consider following me and the kitties, Flowers and Miss Kitty, there. It's never a dull day with those two.

P.S. The bottom photo blurred because Flowers is a busy quick moving girly cat. I will probably

 try to take another one like that.  Notice the puppet is covering its eye with its movable paw. :)

Lover of Silly Cats,

Alesia

First Cat Book Review: Ginger

Greetings from Me and the Witty Kitties!

             

          I started this blog on the first day of summer and while Miss Kitty, Flowers, and I have read all but one of our library picture books about other feline friends, both fictional and real cat inspired, I have yet to write a review. Life in this cat house has been busy this past week, especially this past weekend. No matter how busy we, the people, are Flowers the cat seems to like to stop and smell her surroundings and appreciate every moment. Flowers has her own room so to speak and she loves for people to join her in her room/guest bedroom/design and art room and hang out and just focus on her or just hang out and not talk to her sometimes when she is fussy. Flowers is very people needy, but very shy to new people. She just really loves me and my mom. Miss Kitty, on the other hand, is very happy to visit with people outside while they are gardening, photographing artwork, flowers and plants, and especially her. 

        On Monday afternoon, Miss Kitty snuck out of the house when my dad left the house and  while my mom and I were coming back from being out of town in Lafayette. When we came home, I spent about an hour looking for Miss Kitty on my side of my short dead end street. I contacted one neighbor after another, knocking on doors and making phone calls, but Miss Kitty was not ready to be found. If she wanted to be found she would have voiced a bunch of short "Meows." Each neighbor had a different story to tell, and the one who I awoke to get permission to search her shed, where Miss Kitty loved to frequent a few months back, later found her coming out from behind her house on the way back from getting her mail. Silly and stubborn, and sometimes sweet Miss Kitty was probably finally ready to eat after a couple hours of exploring! It is funny how books I sometimes read remind me so much of my own life or the real world.

      The first book I am reviewing is Ginger by Charlotte Voake. Ginger is an orange striped cat who lived happily with a little girl until the girl brought home another cat to be Ginger's "friend" The new cat was not just any old or young cat, but a kitten who loved to explore everything that belonged to Ginger. Ginger eventually leaves the house. If you want to know what made Ginger leave or if Ginger comes back you will have to check the book out for yourself. The illustrations are cute and the text is large enough for beginning readers or for reading out loud to a group. I find the story of Ginger to be a book that most kids and cats alike would relate to. Personally, the kitten in the story reminds me of Flowers and the older cat Ginger reminds me of Miss Kitty. However lately, when Miss Kitty can't get what she wants, she goes to explore Flowers food and room. When Flowers appears in front of Miss Kitty, Miss Kitty hisses at Flowers. Cats behaviors sometimes remind me of kids. Any kid who has ever had a new friend, sibling, or younger relative come into his or her house to play or officially stay for what seems like "forever" will relate well to Ginger the older cat. Most people and animals don't like change and older pets sometimes feel jealous of the "new guy or gal" in town coming in and getting a lot of attention. It is always good to give each cat its own space to call their own so change is easy for both pets to adjust to each other over time. Make sure to set aside time to give more attention to the oldie but goodie cat in your life. Remember, your older cat was there and loved you first!

Here is a link to the original publisher of Ginger by Charlotte Voake:
http://www.candlewick.com/cat.asp?browse=Title&mode=book&isbn=0763607886&pix=n

In my next post, I will offer a craft or another activity to do in celebration of Ginger and her kitten friend's story.

Cat lover forever,
Alesia

P.S. This is a photo of Flowers and Miss Kitty's Christmas Day Truce. They peacefully co-mingled on the same window sill for the first time last Christmas, because as I mentioned in my first blog post, they gained a new puppy who was at that time in Miss Kitty's backyard.