Synopsis
A clever cat wins his master a fortune and the hand of a princess.
Reviews
Grade 2-4-Clever Puss is back, but he's a very different feline from the one found in Marcellino's Caldecott Honor book (Farrar, 1990). The text, ably translated by Lewis, is immediately familiar and, like the Marcellino edition, reads like a traditional fairy tale. It is Eidrigevicius's dark and somber illustrations that make this such a striking book. His flat, eerily symbolic pictures, while artistically intriguing, are also deeply disturbing. The unique style, filled with "brooding figures and enigmatic landscapes," worked beautifully in Johnny Longnose (1990) and The Hungry One (1993, both North-South), but here it creates a visual interpretation that seems ill-suited to Perrault's elegant, acerbic tale. Fans of the artist will no doubt welcome this effort, and libraries with comprehensive folk and fairy-tale collections will want to add it for its unusual artistic vision. Libraries interested in more traditional treatments will find Marcellino's version still their best bet.
Linda Boyles, Alachua County Library District, Gainesville, FL
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Lewis and Eidrigevicius here take on a more familiar tale than in their Johnny Longnose , and they give it a distinctly adult look. Lewis's translation of the Perrault classic is smooth and accessible, but Eidrigevicius's trademark surreal paintings are uniformly overcast, even murky. Though some of the illustrations are dramatic (e.g., the cat's paw extends into one frame to grab a rabbit) and others wryly amusing (a shirt forms the river that Puss's master swims in), the somber tone seems at odds with the story, in which ingenuity triumphs. This enterprise is aimed at a group far different than that addressed by the Fred Marcellino version--and one of which few children will be members. Ages 5-8.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Gr. 4-7. Of the many recent editions of Perrault's conniving cat tale, this ranks as the strangest. Following her brief, scholarly introduction, Lewis' translation of the text is graceful, readable, and concise. The artwork, however, seems disconnected from the story to the point that, separated from the title and text, only two or three of the dozen paintings would be recognizable as Puss-in-Boots illustrations. While the artist's rather menacing, inscrutable vision may be a valid interpretation of the story, few parents or teachers would choose this version to read aloud to primary-grade children, given the excellent editions already on the shelves. However, the dark, enigmatic scenes could intrigue older children enough that they will compare how the same events are interpreted by different artists. Recommended for libraries with a call for different interpretations of the same tale. Carolyn Phelan
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