Jane Hissey

I enjoyed reading Ruby and the Naughty Cats. I mostly enjoyed the rhyming pattern to the story. Every page rhymed which made it fun to read. For example, the book begins with “Ruby, Blanket and Blue were having a race. It’s fun going fast with the wind in my face.” The rhyming patterns help the story feel exciting and created the urge for me to make predictions. For example, page 11 says “they’re standing on the lovely cake”. After reading the first 10 pages of the story I was show more able to make a prediction and guess the next line, which is “that Blanket took so long to make”. I found myself attempting to make predictions for the duration of the story. There were some I guessed right and a lot I guessed wrong, but it made reading the story extremely fun.
I also enjoyed the books illustrations and their ability to bring the story to life. The illustrator was able to make the characters look three dimensional by choosing solid and subtle colored backgrounds with bright colored characters. For example, on page 7 the background is a very light blue that nearly looks white, while the characters are created with bright blue, red, and yellow. The bright colors of the characters draw the reader’s eye into the beautiful illustrations.
The central message of the book is that everyone deserves to be a friend and nobody enjoys being excluded. The cats were naughty and constantly caused havoc, but they just wanted to be included. When they were allowed to play with Ruby and her friends they also followed the rules. show less

I'm going to go out on a limb and give it the full five stars. The story is sweet and well-told, but the illustrations--oh, those illustrations!--they're absolutely gorgeous. A note at the end says it might take her a year to produce a book, because of the quality of the illustrations, and I believe it. Stun-ning, and absolutely apt for this charmer of a tale.

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at show more picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve! show less

A kind friend gave this book to my son when he was very small. I read it aloud to both children many many times. Some years later the book was sent to the Goodwill by my well-meaning, tidy spouse who thought the children had outgrown it. When I discovered it missing and learned what had happened I cried. It felt like I'd lost a friend.

That moment marks the conscious awareness of my love affair with illustrated children's books. Since then I've collected a small library of favorites but have show more yet to replace Little Bear Lost. show less

A long time ago, Old Bear was packed away in a cardboard box and taken to the attic. Now the day of his rescue has come. But how to find a way up to the attic door? Bramwell Brown, Little Bear, Duck and Rabbit try everything, from jumping on a bed to climbing a not-so-steady tower of blocks, to no avail. Then Duck stumbles upon an idea, and up Little Bear and Rabbit fly in their toy plane.