Have You Seen My Cat?

I’ve gotten acceptable books before but this one was in worse shape than average. The pages had fallen out and were taped back in in the wrong order. Going to have to do some surgery on this book to get it ready for my daughter to read. She loves Eric Clarke books though, so I’m excited to see her reaction when we read it the first time.

My baby loves the book but I received a copy with 2 missing pages!

Have You Seen My Cat is a beautifully written story that everyone can fall in love with over and over again, even though it is geared towards kindergarteners. Incorporated in the story are loving characters, as well as adorable pictures. Repetition and effective sentences make the story more enjoyable, and one may easily be enlightened about felines and multiple cultures by reading this touching story.

Ok, so I'm getting closer to 30 than I am to 3, but as a lifetime lover of Eric Carle books and a die-hard cat person, I loved this book. I first encountered it in an undergraduate children's lit. class during my senior year in college. From there, I took the book home to my roommates (two guys and another gal) and it became a permanent resident on the coffee table!It was great to pick up after a long day -- even just to look at Carle's whimsical art work. But, more importantly, the memorable line "that's not MY cat," became the motto of our household. It didn't matter if the subject was a mismatched sock or an extra plate of leftovers in the fridge -- my roommates would jubilantly yell out "that's not MY cat!"Have You Seen My Cat is a great book for the kid in all of us -- even if you don't have a special child to read to, I highly recommend this book.

My 2 year old loves this book. Her main excitement is ... the boy ... searching through lots of different cats. I am tired of the book's repetitiveness. However, the joy and excitement I see on my daughter's face when she places a request to re-read this book melts my tiredness away and I end up sharing my daughter's enjoyment effortlessly.

It is certainly no mistake (as another reviewer stated) to include this book in the 4 to 8 age category. This is a marvelous example of an early primer. (Does anyone remember the Dick and Jane books from 1st grade?) I bought this book for my great grand daughter just after her 3rd birthday. We read it together many times and then it sat on the shelf. A few months later she picked up the book and read it to her mother. This book is wonderful for helping young children get ready to read. It is composed of sight words, repeated many times. It is human nature for an adult to think young children are only repeating from memory, simple text books like this one. That is not true. Their small brains are processing all the little words that we must memorize in order to read. From being able to read "Where is My Cat", my great grand daughter has developed a voracious appetite for books and at age 4 is reading step 2 readers. As a matter of fact, she reads as well as a second grader I know. Don't underestimate the power of these simple, "boring" books. Eric Carle is a master at writing primers.

I agree with other reviewers that this is a good read-aloud for very young children. But just because the text is so repetitive doesn't mean it is inappropriate for beginning readers. I teach kindergarten and nearly all of the words in the book are sight words, common words the students have to know on sight without sounding them out. The repetitive text also builds confidence in children who are learning to read. This is a book that your child can read to you. On top of all this, Eric Carle's illustrations are so great. I gave this book to my niece for her sixth birthday and her seven year old sister said, "Ooooh, that's a great book!" Don't stop reading this book to your child just because you think it's too easy, or because you're bored with it.