They All Saw a Cat
This book will amaze readers as they turn the pages and discover how one child and a variety of animals see the same cat. Each creature that crosses the cat’s path sees it through its own lens, which Brendan Wenzel captures so brilliantly through his illustrations. Young observers will be fascinated by the details of each perspective, including a fun twist at the end of the story when the cat sees its own reflection in water. With simple text and repetitive phases, young readers will soon be able to take the lead in telling the story, incorporating their own exciting discoveries and observations.
Pennsylvania Center for the Book Awards
Book Activities & Discussion Ideas
This book is sure to prompt questions from young children, who are natural fact checkers. Prior to reading the story with children, adults can research the animal characters so that they are able to incorporate some fun facts into the story. For example, skunks can only see things that are directly in front of them and bees have compound eyes that are made up of thousands of tiny lenses. Both of these characteristics impact the way these animals view the cat. It would be interesting to ask children why they think each animal saw the cat in a certain way. A fun story extension activity could be for adults to ask children to draw their own picture of a cat. Adults can assist children in adding text to the picture similar to the story, such as, “Lillian saw A FLUFFY CAT.” “Jack saw A QUICK CAT.”
After the first few pages of the story, children will begin to see the pattern of the text and the repetitive phrases. Adults can support children in taking the lead by pausing to allow them to fill in words or phrases that are repeated. Children are naturally curious and may have questions about why the animals in the book see the cat in a certain way. Provide materials for adults to find interesting facts about the animals and their vision.