Cat Talk by Patricia MacLachlan (review)
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Cat Talk by Patricia MacLachlan
Though previously focusing on dogs (in Once I Ate a Pie, BCCB 6/06, etc.), Mac-Lachlan and Charest now turn their poetic talents to the feline world. Thirteen free-verse poems, each featuring a different cat as narrator, address cat behaviors from tunneling under the covers (“Under the blankets/ Is the best place”) to prowling (“You can’t see me when it’s dark. My fur is the color of night”) to lavishing affection (“I love everyone./ I fall over onto people I love”). Some poems are a little bland, but there’s plenty of enjoyable feline detail and credible character sketches (grumpy Sylvie says “I like three things: My food/ My windowsill/ My people./ And that’s enough”). The real impact comes from Moser’s vivid cat portraits, watercolors occasionally touched with subtle pencil in three-quarter to full spreads that politely balance the poems. Close-up facial portraits are furrily expressive, and poses are authentic in their supple-spined energy or comfortable collapse. These are appealing to read aloud and engaging to read alone, and they’ll provide plenty of inspiration for kids to write odes to their own kitties.
