Pittipat's Saucer of Moon by Geraldine McCaughrean and Maria Nilsson
| Pittipat's Saucer of Moon by Geraldine McCaughrean and Maria Nilsson | |
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| Category: For Sharing | |
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Reviewer: Ruth Ng
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| Summary: This was one of those picture books that grew on me with several readings. Wonderful language, and some sweet little kitty cats. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 32 | Date: July 2013 |
| Publisher: Hodder Children's Books | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1444904666 | |
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Pittipat the little black kitten is off to the moon, brave and fearless, for he's heard that the moon is a saucer of cream and he thinks that his brothers and sisters have gone up there without him to drink it all up! Off he sets to chase after them, determined to get his own lick of the cream!
It took me a few reads to find my feet with this book. I was initially put off by the vast expanses of blue-green across each page, a strange blue-green colour with tiny black dots on that I felt made the black font rather hard to read. I also struggled a little with the plot. It becomes obvious from the illustrations that Pittipat is dreaming, imagining out his daring trip to the moon, however is he really dreaming or is he imagining whilst awake and playing with his brothers and sisters. And is he trying to get to the real moon, or is he trying to get to a saucer of milk? I think perhaps I was worrying unduly, remembering a time when my little girl was at that never-ending 'why' stage and knowing that she never would have let me escape with just reading this story and she would have demanded a full and complete explanation of all the events depicted!
My little girl is now almost seven, and she sat down and read this book by herself one afternoon. I was a little nervous to see what she'd make of it but she really liked it, declaring she'd give it four stars and she really liked how the mummy cat came along at the end, pretending to be the night, and made all the baby cats go back to bed! No queries whatsoever, which let me to give it another read and really, if you stop worrying about what is dream and what is reality, this is a lovely story!
The language is really wonderful, and although it's not a rhyming tale there are little rhymes thrown in here and there, giving the text a dream-like quality. I love where she writes And tying his tail to a ravel of breeze, he sailed high and low through the hillocky seas. What wonderful words to introduce little ones to and there's more alliteration and unusual patterns of rhymes throughout that make it a delight to read aloud.
As for the illustrations, my only quibble was, as I said, with the colour of the backgrounds behind some of the text. Pittipat is adorably cute, even to a hardened dog-lover like me! There's also a sweet little owl towards the end. I like the style of the pictures and I really love those depicting the sea as the waves look slightly menacing, even with a pretty moon-path glowing across them.
Definitely worth reading for the beautiful writing, and probably best for older pre-schoolers and those in key stage one.
You might also enjoy reading Posy by Linda Newbery and Catherine Rayner or Mog the Forgetful Cat by Judith Kerr.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Pittipat's Saucer of Moon by Geraldine McCaughrean and Maria Nilsson at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Pittipat's Saucer of Moon by Geraldine McCaughrean and Maria Nilsson at Amazon.com.
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