Copycat

Buddy, a young cat with a penchant for imitating everyone and everything around him, copies his mom, his sister, the squirrels, and the birds in the trees, but problems arise when he copies Bessie the dog.

PreSchool-Grade 2-A cleverly formatted book in which Buddy the cat has the habit of mimicking Bessie the dog and two other felines, earning himself the title of Copycat. He sleeps when and where they sleep and drinks when they drink. He even tries to imitate the birds and squirrels in the garden. This tendency ends in disaster when he tries to enjoy a bone, resulting in three broken teeth and a trip to the vet. Afterwards he feels just fine but, unreformed, he is still the same old Copycat. There's not much story here, but the artist's alternating full-and half-page format turns the book into an interactive peekaboo game with a little surprise behind each half page. With her earthy palette, Brown evokes the warmth and safety of Buddy's English home and the organic richness of an English garden. Her appealing animals are rendered realistically and with evident amused affection. Cat enthusiasts will be enchanted by the art.
Kate McClelland, Perrot Memorial Library, Greenwich, CT
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A bowery, tranquil English flat is home to four animal friends-three cats and a dog. Delightfully independent of human interference (no people are glimpsed here), the foursome maintain a sedate routine, relying for their entertainment on Buddy, the "copycat" protagonist. Buddy progresses from imitating his feline family to mimicking the acrobatics of backyard squirrels and birds. But when he decides to chew on a bone belonging to Bessie the dog, broken teeth land him at the vet's. Brown (The Picnic; One Stormy Night) tells this simple tale with a breezy flair and characteristic economy, while her sweeping, painterly illustrations nearly obviate the need for text. Her characteristic palette-varying shades of green, gray and brown-is perfect here, forming a fetching background for the jet-black cats. The book's clever design adds to the charm-half-pages, which, when turned, simultaneously continue the narrative and transform each spread into a different scene. The result is as comfortable and familiar as a beloved pet. Ages 3-6.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ages 3-6. Buddy is a copycat, and because he lives with two other cats and a dog, he always has a companion to imitate. If one cat is sleeping on the window seat or poised in the basket, a turn of the vertically sliced half-pages finds Buddy resting alongside it. Buddy enjoys perching like the squirrel on the garden wall and even tries imitating a bird. But when he chews on the dog's bone and breaks three teeth, Buddy learns that cats aren't meant to do all that other animals do. Lovingly inspired by her own pets and by herÿ20own English environment, Brown's lush paintings convey humor andÿ20affection as well as the animals' personalities, while the hide-and-seek effect of the alternating half-pages adds an extra dose of fun. Ellen Mandel