Pretend You're a Cat

by Jean Marzollo, Jerry Pinkney

With rhyming verse and full-color illustrations, young readers are asked to use their imagination to tranform themselves into a full cast of animals--such as a fish, bird, cow, or cat. Reprint. AB. SLJ. H.

Genres: Picture Books, Animals, Childrens, Fiction, Cats

Paperback

First published May 7, 1990

About the author

Jean Marzollo was an American children's author and illustrator best known for the I Spy series, a best-selling and award-winning collection written entirely in rhythm and rhyme and illustrated by Walter Wick. Over her career, she wrote more than 100 books for children, parents, and educators, including Help Me Learn Numbers 0-20, The Little Plant Doctor, and Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King. Born and raised in Connecticut, she graduated from the University of Connecticut and earned a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She taught high school English and later worked in educational publishing, serving for 20 years as editor of Scholastic’s Let’s Find Out Magazine. Later in life, she began illustrating her own books.

Reviews

[Shiloah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super fun and interactive!

[Joanne Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun act-it-out picture book by two giants of children's publishing. The rhymes are spot on, creative, fun to read, and fun to imitate. Page after page of diverse, ultra-realistic children in Jerry Pinkney's classic watercolors. The author has chosen an array of animals with inventive motions, sounds, and behaviors. A real must especially for groups of little ones.

[Meghan Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book looks a little outdated, but I love that it is interactive. I will use it in a storytime about imagination.

[wildct2003 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good pictures; only skimmed

[Lisa Nagel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun and interactive book that I can see play acting out with a child. The illustrations by Pinkney are as always, lovely.

[Gina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Verses for moving like animals. It should be good for getting the wiggles out, but it didn't appeal to me.

[Barb Hegreberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute picture book that teaches about various animals & encouraged little one to pretend to be each one. Great for a read-aloud!

[Kelly Grimes · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.Personal reaction- I though this story was very slow. Each page asked the students how they relate to the certain animal being described. But with each page starting off asking if the child can do this or that got boring as the story progressed. Even though I didn’t find this story intriguing, I do believe this is a great beginning to read book for young children. I enjoy this book in the fact that it cause children to use their imagination when depicting their own actions and relating them to similar actions of various animals. I enjoy how this book can cause students to get up and physically act out characteristics certain animals portray.

2. Purpose-
This is a great book to read during an animal unit, when discussing various animals. This book would be great to read when discussing any certain animal that might be described in this story. This book allows for students to learn more about the environment the animal lives in, the way the animal moves, the way the animal eats, the actions the animal performs continuously, and many more. Children will gain knowledge on each of the animals provided in the story and will be forced to use their imagination on every animal when asked the repetitive question on each page, “What else can you do like a...” Students will be forced to question what characteristics they share with the animal being described.

This book is a great beginning book for children in kindergarten. This book has limited text and uses illustrations to cover most of the page. Each page is very repetitive asking questions all starting with “Can you...”and then proceeding with a characteristic of the animal. The vocabulary may be difficult for the student to sound out, but the students will already be familiar with the vocabulary for it is the common characteristics of the animal, for example, scratch, peep, and buzz. Students will enjoy this book because the animals described in the story are animals they see everyday, squirrels, bees, fish, and cats. But this book also includes animals that students may not be exposed to everyday but are popular in books, movies, and TV shows that they may be presented with almost everyday, cows, pigs, and seals.

A key literary term to be taught during this story is setting. For each animal described, the setting in which the animal is found is described. Student will learn through this literary element that the setting and environment of each animal shapes and develops the actions and characteristics of each animal. Students will learn not only learn why the specific setting of each animal is important for their survival, but students will also learn about the multiple and various habitats animals live in.

3. The illustrations in the book are very life like, allowing students to be able to relate to the children in the illustrations. The pictures have children acting out the actions and characteristics of the animal being described. This will encourage students to follow along with the children in the pictures and act out the animal being described. These illustrations will help students broaden their imagination.

[Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is absolutely amazing for children and definitely something I would like to add to my classroom library in the future. There are so many different ways you could turn this story into lesson plans that would all benefit children in different ways. Basically this book is full of different rhyming verses that will help children to learn about animals and the different noises and actions they produce. Of course illustrated by the extremely talented Jerry Pinkney, the illustrations will help children even more learn about animals. The details Jerry puts into his work is like none other. Great learning material for sure.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great book for ECE level readers because it encourages the reader to perform actions that are typical to the various animals presented within the book. Cat, dog, bear, seal, etc. It is less of a story and more of a guide to movement, which is perfect for wiggly little ones who are ready for a more interactive adventure!

[Nicole Holden · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book. This book gets kids up and moving. The students can pretend to be the animal that is mentioned on the page. This book has a cute rhyme the pre-k students will adore.

[Sandra Stiles · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautiful interactive book that allows the child young and old to pertend they are an animal and act out many things. Done in beautiful rhyme.

[Mistiemae1 Downs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very engaging for the young child. This book encourages them to behave in the manner of a variety of common animals. The illustrations focus more on the children than on the animals themselves.

[Lindsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think these illustrations are far to elementary for high school ELLs, but it was perfect for my four year old.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

I Like It When . . .

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read at Preschool Story Time at the Tenley library on 7/25/13: http://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com/...

[Buxmont Uu]

CMMW 22

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute but cookie cutter poems to introduce animal behaviors. I don't feel like equal attention was given to each animal as the poems were developed so only a few have several attributes in the poem.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was a mystery reader for my daughter's class last February, I picked this because I think the illustrator is Jerry Pinckney (and my daughter loves cats).

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Big hit at PJ storytime tonight.

[Little Champs]

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