Satoshi Kitamura

When a witch climbs into his bedroom late one night and curses him, Nicholas wakes up the next morning in his cat Leonardo's body. Life as a cat seems simple at first, full of naps and jumping, but after getting into some tussles with the neighborhood animals, Nicholas discovers that "Life was as tough and complicated as it was for humans." Things get even worse when Leonardo, in his human body, returns home from school and acts strangely, scaring his mother. Fortunately, the witch visits show more again that night...

Although author/artist Satoshi Kitamura is Japanese, many of his picture-books appear to have been published first in the UK, where he lived for many years. That is the case with Me and My Cat?, which pairs a hilarious story with entertaining illustrations. I loved the matter-of-fact way the witch climbs in and out of Nicholas' bedroom window, cursing and uncursing. I enjoyed the story itself, with its body-switch plot-line, and I laughed aloud at the surprise ending, when we discover just who the witch's real target was meant to be. Recommended to fans of Kitamura, and to anyone looking for fun, funny and fantastical stories for the picture-book set. show less

I can't really say what it is about Kitamura's illustration style that makes me like it so much, but I do. Whether it's The Comic Adventures of Boots or Me and My Cat it's a world unto itself between cartoon and watercolor illustration, a controlled playfulness that's as expressive as it is equally fun.

Stone Age Boy is another world altogether, literally. A boy goes exploring and falls down a hole landing in a cave during one of man's more primitive eras on the planet. From the looks of both show more the people and their way of life the boy has found himself in a Scandinavian fishing village befriended by a girl who goes by the name Om. After regarding each other's appearance as odd they take the boy into their society and show him their ways. They dry fish, they hunt, Om and boy play as kids and help out as needed, and at night around the fire when the others sing and dance the boy plays his air guitar. One day he and Om enter a cave and discover it full of paintings, stories of previous hunts, and a bear. Along the way he loses Om and re-emerges into his own time. In the book's coda we see the boy as an adult archaeologist digging back into the past, searching for his link back to another time, searching for traces of Om and her village.

A natural progression for younger readers who might have moved beyond the novelty of the dinosaur and want to know more about how one goes about digging up and studying the past, the information is both accessible and not in the least bit "teach-y". Where most of the illustrations are full-page or full-spread there are a few spreads with smaller illustrations full of details about life in the village that feel cramped and just a bit too small. If these informational pages had been larger and maybe expanded over a few pages I think it would made a huge difference between a good book and a great one for me.

I like this more serious side of Kitamura, I don't think I'd mind seeing more. show less

Part of my 365 Kids Books challenge. For a fuller explanation see my review for [b:101 Amazing Facts about Australia|21332402|101 Amazing Facts about Australia (Countries of the World)|Jack Goldstein|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1394253825l/21332402._SY75_.jpg|25417728] You can see all the books on their own shelf.

Kitamura's books shouldn't work: he tends to use too many words, and there are plot holes, and things just get abandoned. And yet, it show more works. This borrows from [b:The Wind in the Willows|5659|The Wind in the Willows|Kenneth Grahame|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1423183570l/5659._SY75_.jpg|1061285] and Sam Spade and throws in a bunch of rugby cats. Random and silly and what about the car?

Library copy show less

I enjoyed this book immensely, especially as a cat owner myself. What I liked best about this book was the plot. It depicted a boy, Nicholas, switching bodies with his cat after being cursed by a witch. It did a great job of introducing the subject of perspective, with an interesting twist. Nicholas got to see what it was like to be a cat, and realized how different it really was. For example, although he liked the neighbors dog, Bernard, he found that Bernard didn’t like him very much show more when he was a cat. I also thought the illustrations were interesting. They were “anime style,” which was something I’d never really seen in a non- anime book. It really made me think what other books I’ve read would look like if they were illustrated “anime style.” I think the big idea of this book was the importance of understanding the perspective of others. Usually, this message is brought about by humans switching bodies with each other, so I thought the idea of Nicholas switching bodies with his cat was a unique way to address the idea of perspective. show less