Cat Story Time!

Today's story time theme was cats! The first book that I read was Cat Tale by Michael Hale. This story introduces us to three delightful cats: Lillian, Tilly, and William J. This story has a charming way of introducing words with double meanings to young readers. For example, the cats "flee a steer". Then, "they steer a plane". The cats "plane a board" and then "board a train".
The story goes on in this fashion until the three cats mix up their words:
They knew a rock could squash a berry ....
No. No.
They know a rock can squash a berry ....
They use a rock to squash a berry ...
No?!
They use a squash to bury a rock?
They pause ...
They use their paws to rock a squashberry!
Rock a squashberry?
The author states that "the words are jumbled!" and "they've lost their way". But they quickly get back on their way and "they tail a bear"; "they bear some hail"; and "they hail a giant purple whale".

The next book that I read was You Are Not a Cat! by Sharon Flake. This book was the children's favorite! This story features a duck that insists he is a cat and he keeps on meowing. The cat tells him that he is a duck and he should quack! The children enjoyed meowing with the duck and quacking with the cat. The cat calls the duck a parrot when he repeats what the cat is saying and the duck squawks. The duck tells the cat that yesterday he was a squirrel and last week he was a rooster. What will you be tomorrow? the cat asks the duck and the duck replies "moo".

The last book I read was Counting with Tiny Cat by Viviane Schwarz. The children and I enjoyed counting the balls of yarn that tiny cat had. He started with zero balls of yarn, then he had one, two, three, four, five, and so many more! Too many to count! I love the illustrations in this book! Tiny cat has so many different facial expressions! The illustrations were done in ink and crayon and colored digitally.
I had some other books that I pulled for this story time, but did not read. These books are as follows:

The classic story of Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes features a kitten who thinks the full moon is a little bowl of milk in the sky! She tries various methods to get it, such as: reaching out with her tongue, jumping from the top step of the porch, chasing it, climbing a tree, and jumping into a pond! But she doesn't get the bowl of milk. The tired kitten returns home where a bowl of milk is waiting for her.

They All Saw a Cat by Brendan Wenzel features illustrations that show how the same cat is viewed differently by a child, a dog, a fox, a fish, a mouse, a bee, a bird, a flea, a snake, a skunk, a worm, and a bat. The illustrations are absolutely amazing! This book is a great way to introduce young readers to different perspectives and to explain how different people can view the world differently.

The delightful story of A Castle Full of Cats by Ruth Sanderson is told in rhyme. The cats are loved and spoiled by the queen. But the king? Not so much. The cats try to persuade the king to love them by giving him gifts such as a dead mouse and a fish skeleton. They get on time of his favorite chairs ahead of him to warm them. They sing lovely serenades to him because the king loves music and art. Finally in frustration, the king leaves and comes back with a huge dog!
The story ends like this:
Is this the end of all our games?
The end to all our fun?
Or could it be, quite possibly ...
Yes! The games have just begun!