Very sweet, wordless picture book about a cat's adventure and the little boy who goes out to seek his lost cat. ( )

Spot, the Cat by Henry Cole is a great book for nearly all children. The book is a fun adventure book about a kid looking for his cat who crawled out of an open window. The book shows the boy printing lost flyers and then passing them around town. The book provides a lot of images for kids to explore their imagination and to provide their own ideas of what is happening in the story. The book also showcases a lot of different scenes that a child could see around a city offering them more information about the world as well an opportunity for them to create their own connections. The only problem potentially with this book is that it is based in a city, so for kids who grew up in or live in more rural neighborhoods a lot of what they see in the book may be confusing or new to them. ( )

This book is about a cat who wonders away from home and the little boy he owns her. The little boy is very concerned for his cat and he puts up flyers and asks around if anyone has seen her. The cat goes through the city and there is a lot going on in every window and on the rooftops. Each page is telling its own story. You also get to find the cat on each page since it is all drawn in black and white, it is fun searching for her. In the end, the little boy and the cat are reunited.

This book is wonderful for helping young people learn how to recognize shapes and features as the book follows a cat wandering through a city. This book also helps young ones to sharpen their attention to details and to focus on particular elements as they search through the pages to find the cat. Strikingly precise, and delicately detailed illustrations adorn the pages. I found it interesting that the author and illustrator Henry Cole was a beloved science teacher before turning his talents to children's books. No wonder he has such a keen eye for observation! This book could even demonstrate to students that science and art are not necessarily incongruous or disparate realms from one another.

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Spot, the Cat, is about to embark on an outdoor adventure when he suddenly leaps out his apartment window and into the world. Each page takes the reader on a exploration of the city and Spot is located on each page if you only look. Follow Spot’s journey through a farmer’s market, across a bridge, through a park and beyond as he weaves through the city. Spot’s owner is worried. Will he ever return?

This is very similar to a Look and Find book in that you have to search for Spot on each page. All the illustrations are black and white and Spot is somewhere new each time. Children will spend a little time finding him as some pages are more difficult than others with trick illustrations added in. It’s a great book for conversation and children love it. I think it’s great for parent-child reading.

5***** ( )