Friday, October 27, 2017

I Won't Eat That

I Won't Eat That. Christopher Silas Neal. 2017. [November] Candlewick Press. 40 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: Dogs eat dog food. Fish eat fish food. But I'm a cat, and I will NOT eat cat food. It's dry and dull and not very yummy. Yuck. But if I don't eat cat food, what will I eat?

Premise/plot: The cat in Christopher Silas Neal's I Won't Eat That is a very picky eater. He knows one thing: cat food is not for him. But what is the right food for him? Cat goes around asking all sorts of animals what they eat. He rejects their answers one by one. Too wiggly. Too bouncy. Too boring. Will Cat find his answer?

My thoughts: I liked this one. Picky eating isn't necessarily a new subject in picture books. But it feels right for a cat to be picky about what he/she eats. Is this one completely realistic?! Perhaps not. I don't know what kind of neighborhood Cat lives in, but his quest takes him to a fox, a lion, a whale, a chimp, a turtle, and an elephant! Certainly not the animals you'd expect.

The twist. I kept expecting a twist. I had a feeling that Cat would ask the wrong animal what they ate. I did NOT want to see curiosity killing the cat. That is NOT the case. But Cat's not the only animal asking questions. And curiosity ends up killing someone....

Text: 4 out of 5
Illustrations: 3 out of 5
Total: 7 out of 10

© 2017 Becky Laney of Young Readers

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