A Curious Collection of Cats

The Bibliography
Franco, Betsy. 2009. A Curious Collection of Cats. Ill. by Michael Wertz. Berkeley: Tricycle Press. ISBN 1582462488

The Plot
The 34 poems in this book are all about the silly things cats do, from jumping on their owners' heads to always landing on their feet to popping out of grocery bags to scratch toes. It is a glimpse into the life of a cat in verse! Each poem has rhythm that begs to be read aloud, to a group of kids or even to a clowder of cats! (I had to look up the collective noun for cats.)

The Analysis
















(Can you tell that's supposed to be a cat? I had it typed out, but whenever I published my blog, the formatting changed, so I had to post it as a picture instead!)

The illustrations make these short poems a lot of fun to read, with the rich, bright colors and almost cut paper look of them. Since the poems are so short, if they weren't in concrete poetry form, which I learned can also be called visual poetry, I don't know that many would pick up this book to read it. However, the illustrations are fantastic, making this book exciting and visually pleasing.

My favorite poem from the book is Cat Haiku 1 ("Tuna fish dinner/Kitty washes down her meal/Sips from toilet bowl") because my cat, B, is also orange and drinks from the toilet.

The Review
Hazel Rochman (Booklist, Mar. 15, 2009 (Vol. 105, No. 14))
Words and pictures blend in these concrete poems about cats, written in forms that include haiku, limerick, and free verse. 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. One poem is in the shape of a feline tail. Another describes Kabob the cat’s fall upside down, and not only do the pictures show his movement, but the words do, too. When felines fight, the position of the words mirrors their furious screeches, howls, pouncing, and biting. Cat lovers will recognize the standoffs with arching backs, the cozy touch of the “purrfect” scarf on their shoulders, and the tech-savvy cat who walks across the keyboard to add her own note to an e-mail to a friend.

The Connection
It could be fun to do a poetry program using this and other concrete poetry books, like Blue Lipstick by John Grandits, Rainbow Soup by Brian P. Cleary and A Poke in the I by Paul B. Janeczko, then have kids write and illustrate their own concrete poems! April's on its way... Here come the poetry programs!