Mrs. Merriwether's Musical Cat - Softcover

Purdy, Carol

3.96

28 ratings by Goodreads

9780698115989: Mrs. Merriwether's Musical Cat

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0698115988 ISBN 13: 9780698115989

Publisher: Puffin, 1997

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Mrs. Merriwether takes in a stray cat that proves to have an amazing effect on her piano students

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From School Library Journal:

Kindergarten-Grade 3-The rhythmic twitching of a cat's tail is the purr-fect foil for this charming, syncopated tale. Mrs. Merriwether lives an ordinary life in an ordinary town teaching three pupils piano lessons on Tuesday afternoons. Morton Highbrow mangles Mozart and butchers Bach, Florence Danube's favorite waltzes lack the proper beat, and Rhonda Rockwell has energy but no talent for bopping out the "Top Forty." When a stray cat leaps onto Mrs. Merriwether's piano and begins waving its tail in time to the music, the three students are transformed into virtuosos, Mrs. Merriwether has a new friend and new vitality, and Peach Tree Lane is no longer ordinary. When the cat, appropriately named Beethoven, suddenly disappears, a metronome proves to be no substitute and Tuesdays become worse than boring. When the cat returns with an ensemble of kittens, the glorious music and euphoria resumes. Children will not foresee the ending due to the orchestration of the story's pacing, the surprise element, and clever touches of visual and verbal detail. Mathers's colorful paintings are just jazzy and offbeat enough to create a tempo that's whimsical and upbeat. Text and pictures play in harmonious concert here.
Julie Cummins, New York Public Library
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

Purdy (Least of All) and Mathers (Sophie and Lou; Victor and Christabel) hit some high notes in this picture book about a stray cat's surprising effect on a piano teacher and her pupils. Mrs. Merriwether leads an "ordinary" life on Peach Tree Lane, "an ordinary street in an ordinary town." Her favorite day of the week is Tuesday, when she gives piano lessons to three children from the neighborhood. Unfortunately Mrs. Merriwether's students don't seem to be improving, tending to make more noise than music. But a friendly white feline whose tail swishes like a metronome changes everything. The young pianists play like prodigies, Mrs. Merriwether spruces up her house and buys a "wild" red dress, and Peach Tree Lane is ordinary no longer. But when the cat disappears, things threaten to revert to type. Purdy's well-paced text makes the most of a slight premise and Mathers's expressive paintings further energize the proceedings with their abundance of understated humorous details and their rich palette. Music aficionados and cat lovers especially will find much to like here, but just about everyone will want to join in the ivory-tickling fun. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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