Cat Nap: a Wild Romp with the Big Cats - Hardcover

Potter, Keith; Potter, Keith R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0811820696 ISBN 13: 9780811820691

Publisher: Chronicle Books Llc, 1999

Synopsis

Discusses and compares the habitats and behavior of three of the big cats: cheetahs, lions, and tigers

About this title

About the Author

Keith R. Potter has worked as an illustrator, designer and art director. Recently, he was an affiliate artist-in-residence at the Marin Headlands Center for the Arts in California. These are his first books for children. Jana Leo is an artist who has exhibited her film and photographic work in New York and Europe. Ms. Leo is currently studying architecture. These, too, are her first published books for children.

Reviews

Grade 2-4-A breezy introduction to cheetahs, lions, and Bengal tigers set in the animals' natural domains. Potter and Leo have superimposed a gimmicky humorous scheme on an otherwise straightforward presentation of text and photographs. Three computer-enhanced cartoon animals-Edgar, the Blue-Toed Tiger; Ryan Lion; and Miss Cheetah-are laid onto every scene and add their short quips in dialogue balloons. The informative text has an upbeat zing. "Cheetahs are carnivores, which means that like all cats they eat meat. (Freshly killed, still-on-the-bone, red, raw meat!)" The discussion touches on each animal's size, coloration, social behavior, hunting and eating, care of its young, and communication. Blocks of text in black or white print are laid over the double-page full-bleed photographs. Small, black inset blocks add further details. The photographs vary in quality, though the cartoon figures-somtimes in gold and orange tones and other times as dark silhouettes-dominate the foreground or distract the eye. At the outset, one of the interlopers wonders whether "...wild cats act anything like the little fluffy ones humans have at home." That point gets only a brief occasional nod. Readers will find out much more in Hope Ryden's Your Cat's Wild Cousins (Dutton, 1992) or in the many other titles available about big cats. Still, this is an interesting and informative offering that has the cluttered look of a children's magazine article.
Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This attention-grabbing book in the Doodlezoo series imparts a wealth of natural history as it goes its merry way describing the lives of cheetahs, lions, and tigers. A collage-inspired blend of photographs, cartoon images, boxed items, and typefaces create an appealing browser's volume. The narrators--Ryan Lion, Miss Cheetah, and Edgar, the Blue-Toed Tiger--introduce salient aspects of cats. A host of facts--what makes the cheetah the fastest, who does the hunting in a pride of lions, why disruptive camouflage and scent-marking territory is important to tigershelp differentiate the big cats from one another, while their love of naps unites them. Funny and useful. (map) (Picture book. 7-10) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Chronicle Books Llc
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0811820696
• ISBN 13: 9780811820691
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Leo Jana
• Number of pages: 41