A Curious Collection Of Cats By Betsy Franco Illustrations By Michael Wertz

1.  Bibliography
Franco, Betsy.  2009.  A CURIOUS COLLECTION OF CATS.  Ill. by Michael Wertz.  Toronto:  Tricycle Press.  ISBN 9781582462486


2.  Plot Summary
The Franco has put together a collection of thirty-four poems about cats and their lively personalities.  Veronica Goes Wide is about a cat who is a little chunky.  The illustration is of a big cat who takes up the whole page.  The words run across Veronica's body with each word changing in size to emphasize the point of the poem.  The word plump is the largest word in the poem to make sure the reader understands how large the cat actually is.  Each poem picks a different aspect of a cats personality and their habits to bring them to life in the book.


3.  Critical Analysis
The author uses limerick, free verse, and haiku to bring the poems to life.  The words of the poems curve and wind around the pages.  The poem titled Fluff Is Polydactyl is about a cats big feet.  The words of the poem are written across her two back feet.  The reader has to follow the words along the cats large feet to read the poem.  The way the words of each poem are laid out on the page bring excitement to reading each poem from the words reading down a cats tail to being read on a toilet.  Turning each page brings a new journey of word play.
The illustrations of each poem are bright and colorful.  The cats are depicted in a cartoon format to bring hilarity to their actions and personalities.    In Shadow's Dream the illustrator uses blacks, blues, and silvers to give the viewer the images of darkness and moonlight has the cat wakes from her dream.  Each color for every illustration fits the point of the poem.  The pictures add to the fun of reading each poem has the words move around the images on the pages.

4.  Review Excerpt
BOOKLIST Review:  "Once kids get the feel of how to follow the lines—up and down or in curving jumps or around the page borders––they will have fun with the playful images."
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL Review:  "Franco understands the nuanced world of the fluffy, fractious, and faithful feline friend."
Honor Book For Lee Bennett Hopkins Award For Children's Poetry.

5.  Connections
Print off coloring sheets of cats doing different actions from the internet.  Than have the children color them and write their own poem on the coloring sheet.  Tell the children to have fun with the words and let each word play on the page and make it fun to read has the book was.
Other books with cat poems:
Crawley, Dave.  CAT POEMS.  ISBN 1590782879
Eliot, T.S..  OLD POSSUM'S BOOK OF PRACTICAL CATS.  ISBN 0547248271