Telling Time with Big Mama Cat - Hardcover

Harper, Dan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0152017380 ISBN 13: 9780152017385

Publisher: Clarion Books, 1998

Synopsis

A snack at 9:00, a nap at 10:00, sneaking onto the forbidden chair at 11:00--telling time is the only way Big Mama Cat can remember all the important things she has to do. Follow Big Mama Cat from sunrise till day's end, and you can learn to tell time, too! A sturdy fold-out page at the front of the book reveals a clock with movable plastic hands. Young readers can change the time as Big Mama Cat moves from one adventure to the next in her busy day.

About this title

About the Authors

Dan Harper is also the author of the acclaimed Telling Time with Big Mama Cat.

Barry Moser is the prizewinning illustrator of many beautiful books for children and adults, including Harcourt’s Telling Time with Big Mama Cat and Sit, Truman!, both co-illustrated by his daughter Cara Moser and written by Dan Harper. He has won the American Book Award and earned accolades from the American Library Association and the American Institute of Graphic Arts. Mr. Moser lives in western Massachusetts.

Reviews

PreSchool-Grade 2-A feline claims, "Some people think cats don't know much-but I, Big Mama Cat, know how to tell time. How else could I keep my busy day on schedule?" Readers quickly discover the irony in this assertion, as illustrations soon reveal that her busy day consists of napping, eating, or waiting to do one or the other. Her proprietary interest in the goings-on of her domain are manifest in her awareness of the humans' schedule, from the morning rituals of baby feedings and the school bus to the family's evening routine of dinner and a bedtime story. The simple, consistent arrangement of text and pictures on each page gently frames the humor and perfectly captures the everyday dramas of naptime and tea parties. Humor is furthered by visual details, including birds and mice of which the proud feline narrator seems completely unaware. Clocks showing the times noted in the text are clearly visible on every page and can be supplemented by a clock with moveable plastic hands that is part of the front cover. The tongue-in-cheek tone of the story and high-quality art are so engrossing, however, that the cover clock might be entirely ignored. Buy several copies; this combination is guaranteed to please those learning to tell time as well as their younger siblings.
Tana Elias, Meadowridge Branch Library, Madison, WI
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A cat who knows how to tell time? "How else could I keep my busy day on schedule?" asks Big Mama Cat. Harper, in his first book, cleverly employs the cat narrator to recount a grueling schedule of napping, stretching, "prewashing" the dirty dishes and lingering nearby if a snack seems forthcoming. A page featuring a clock with movable plastic hands shows through the die-cut cover, and folds out so readers can move the clock hands to the times cited in the book. The handsome illustrations, composed by Cara Moser and painted in watercolors by Barry Moser (the father-daughter team also illustrated Eagle Boy: A Traditional Navajo Legend), capture expressions and poses that will be familiar to cat lovers: looking unrepentant as she is "helped down" from the forbidden new chair and licking her chops at the dinner table ("I'm not invited, but I grab a seat and look hungry"). One humorous spread shows the sly feline at the door, on the left, wanting to go outside at 10:30 a.m.; on the right, at 10:45 (displayed on a cat clock), she peers in from the outside and wants in?a tiny mouse pictured inside the house provides the explanation. With activities every hour, and sometimes more often, Big Mama Cat will likely succeed in teaching young cat lovers to clock their days with confidence. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ages 3^-7. There's no dearth of books on telling time, but this one is a winner in every respect. A foldout flap picturing a clock complete with movable hands allows little ones to duplicate the time shown in pictures chronicling the way imposing Big Mama Cat spends her day. "Some people think cats don't know much--but I, Big Mama Cat, know how to tell time. How else could I keep my busy day on schedule?" And so it goes, from a big cat stretch at 6 a.m. and a day busy with food, games, naps, and mischief, till midnight, "Purrrrrr. . . Good night!" The illustrations, "composed by Cara Moser and translated by Barry Moser," who previously worked together on Eagle Boy (1996), are a total delight. Sure and accomplished (as one would expect from Barry Moser), they perfectly capture feline whims and postures and the warmth of home and family as they clearly but surprisingly unobtrusively make plain how time changes and how it relates to activities of the day--especially those of a cat. Stephanie Zvirin

Edition details

• Publisher: Clarion Books
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0152017380
• ISBN 13: 9780152017385
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Moser Barry, Moser Cara
• Number of pages: 36