Who Will Bell the Cat? by Patricia McKissack - ADVISABLE

McKissack, Patricia C. Who Will Bell the Cat?  Illustrated by Christopher Cyr.  PICTURE BOOK.  Holiday House, 2018.  $18.  9780823437009.

The barn mice are terrified of the cat that they themselves saved and invited into the barn.  While they come up with a plan to bell the cat, every plan they come to execute the plan fails.  When someone new arrives on the scene, though, the mice see a way to reach their end game.

McKissack takes a familiar story and adds whimsy and depth.  Rather than the plump, lazy housecat of other iterations, Cyr’s cat is lean and hungry, making the mice more desperate and the solution even sweeter. Of course, they are mice.  In a older classroom, it would be fun to show how the trope of belling the cat has been used in TV and movies.

EL (K-3) – ADVISABLE.  Cindy, Library Teacher