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Cat Tale


Cat Tale
by Michael Hall
Greenwillow, 2012.  Unpaged.  Picture book.

     Three cats--Lillian, Tilly, and William J.--go on an excursion with many adventures in rhyming and illustrating homophones:  "They flee a steer/ They steer a plane/ They plane a board/ They board a train. . . ." Part way through their lilting linguistic journey, things fall apart:  "They use their paws to shoo a train.  A shoo-shoo train? No!  They use a shoe to steer a box?  No!  They use a box to steer a steer? No, no, no!"  But then the cats' tale/tail comes into play and off they go to the end of their delightful story.  Hall's brightly colored geometric illustrations highlight and propel the cats' wordplay. Cat Tale is a perfect beginning literacy text, but is also a total gas.

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