Tiptop Cat - Hardcover

Mader, Roger

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0544147995 ISBN 13: 9780544147997

Publisher: Clarion Books, 2014

Synopsis

A curious cat plus a big fall leads to squashed confidence. How this cat bounces back will encourage readers everywhere to try, try again. Eye-catching art and crisp graphic paneling invite even the youngest of children to get back on their feet to explore the city alongside TipTop Cat. 

About this title

About the Author

“Let the story come to you” is a tip on writing that Roger Mader was once given. This one came to his door in the form of a scrawny little gray and white cat. In wondering where she had come from, Roger wrote his first story for children, Lost Cat, and the new arrival modeled for his illustrations. A former creative director in an international advertising agency, Roger now lives in the Normandy countryside with his French wife, Martine, and Pete, the little cat who adopted them.

From School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 3—Mader makes smart use of the picture book form to convey the daily life and dramatic mishaps of a city-dwelling cat. A familiar sort in many neighborhoods, this black-and-white feline, expressive and unnamed, arrives in a new home. "Of all the gifts she got that day, the best one was the cat." Long strips of small pictures follow the cat's exploration of the rooms in his new home. Oh, look! These cozy bits open to a dramatic view of the place he likes best—the balcony. This is a fine, tall apartment building, and from the balcony the cat can get to the rooftop. The varied pages of small and large scenes convey the cat's doings so effectively that this could actually work as a wordless book, but the spare text adds humor and drama. Every day, the animal climbs all the way to his favorite spot "on top of the world." High atop a robust red brick chimney, he gazes out on a crowded city with the Eiffel Tower off in the distance. The balcony/rooftop peace erupts one day with the arrival of a pigeon ("A little jungle beast awoke within the cat."). Alas, the cat's leap for the bird leads to his plunge "down...down...down." Humans make their only appearance with the cat's landing in the arms of an astonished street merchant and the subsequent visit to the vet for an x-ray. "Nothing was broken except...his spirit." The cowering feline and his subsequent varied hiding spots are a funny anti-climax, lasting only until the day a crow shows up on the balcony ("and that inner beast stirred again."). Mader's fine use of pastels and apt choices of detail, surfaces, and light and shadow provide storytelling and viewing sure to be widely enjoyed.—Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston

About this edition

• Publisher: Clarion Books
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0544147995
• ISBN 13: 9780544147997
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 40