Tessa's Tip-tapping Toes - Hardcover

Crimi, Carolyn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0439317681 ISBN 13: 9780439317689

Publisher: Orchard, 2002

Synopsis

An enchanting performance starring a little mouse who was born to boogie and a cat who can't stop crooning.

Other mice scurry, but not Tessa. She boogies, bops shimmies, and hops. On her family's raids through Mrs. Timboni's kitchen, Tessa tangos across the teapot and sashays with saltshakers.

Soon Mrs. Timboni brings home a cat--but Oscar is no ordinary cat. He doesn't like to nap or chase mice. Instead, he croons on Mrs. Timboni's counter, sings in her sinks, and trills on the dining room table. Is it any wonder that there's magic in the air when these two talents finally meet?

About this title

Review:

Crimi (Don't Need Friends, not reviewed, etc.) and Carrington (Sometimes I Feel Like a Stormcloud, not reviewed, etc.) team up for a humorous tale of a tap-dancing mouse and a singing cat who are more interested in their particular talents than in the traditional game of cat-and-mouse. Tessa the mouse is warned by her mother to stop tapping and twirling and to start scurrying quietly like a proper mouse. Oscar the cat is warned by his owner, Mrs. Trimboni, to start chasing the mice and to stop "crooning and caterwauling" because he bothers the neighbors. Both creatures go on with the show in another stay-true-to-yourself story that ends in a toe-tapping jam-fest with the mouse family, the cat, and Mrs. Trimboni all singing and kicking up their heels. Crimi uses expressive, rollicking language to describe the dancing and singing: "the skitter-scamper of little mice feet," "a rowdy, riotous tune," and "an all-out rock-'n'-roll, boogie-woogie, hip-hop, two-step combo." Carrington's large, crayon-bright paintings with varying perspectives are complimented by an oversized format with lots of double-page spreads. She has a flair for the hilarious touch, such as Tessa's bottle-cap tap shoes and Oscar's broomstick microphone. Although the storyline isn't exceptional, this will fit well into lots of thematic story hours (mice, cats, dancing, singing, or follow-your-heart).
--Kirkus Reviews, Jan. 15th, 2002

From Publishers Weekly:

Jazzy, deeply tinted gouaches in lavender and lime and big-headed characters with beady little eyes add oomph to this story about letting yourself go. Tessa the mouse loves to dance, but her mother admonishes her to keep quiet, for safety's sake. "Tessa would try to stop with every ounce of her be-boppin', hip-hoppin' heart. But when her toes weren't tip-tapping she felt all wrong." The resident housecat, Oscar, loves to sing, but his owner, Mrs. Timboni, begs him to keep quiet so the neighbors don't complain. "Oscar tried stopping with every ounce of his singsongy humdinger of a heart. But when his tongue wasn't trilling, he felt all wrong." When Tessa and Oscar meet one rainy night, a moment of mutual suspicion quickly gives way to the discovery of their kindred artistry, and pretty soon the entire household is hip-hopping and sing-songing along with the furry duo. Crimi's (Outside, Inside) snappy prose finds its match in Carrington's (I Feel Like a Storm Cloud) funky vignettes and spreads. Oscar, his head and body composed of two furry black-and-white rectangles with a pair of swivel hips that Elvis might envy, is the cat's meow. Ages 4-7.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Orchard
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0439317681
• ISBN 13: 9780439317689
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Carrington Marsha Gray