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Cat's Knees & Bee's Whiskers
Baldrick the cat studies hard to become an expert witch's cat, but he runs into trouble when he tries out a new spell without supervision
- GenresPicture Books
26 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 11, 2022
Had me believing the moon was actually cheese for too long.
February 24, 2022
This is a delightful picture book. The cat Baldrick didn't expect to get the job when he went for the interview as 'Apprentice Witch's Cat'.
He didn't find riding the broom easy at all. Not like the other cats. But he could cook, his speciality was SUGAR FROSTED MICE!
Baldrick loved mice. He was a good hunter. So much so, there were no mice left in Lobelia Gnomeclencher's house.
When the great wizard Grimley Beamish came to visit, he asked Lobelia to get green cheese from the moon. She had to do it herself. When Baldrick heard the moon was made of green cheese, he could picture many juicy mice to chase and eat.
This led Baldrick to climb a tree to reach the moon he thought was sitting at the top. That didn't work so he came up with another plan.
I bought this book by Sandy Nightingale because I love the illustrations of a Witch. I fell in love with Baldrick the ingenious cat.
I need to try my hand at drawing and like this author's style. I bought 'Room on the Broom' for the same reason. You guessed it, my story for the new anthology for The Ten Penners has a witch in it.
He didn't find riding the broom easy at all. Not like the other cats. But he could cook, his speciality was SUGAR FROSTED MICE!
Baldrick loved mice. He was a good hunter. So much so, there were no mice left in Lobelia Gnomeclencher's house.
When the great wizard Grimley Beamish came to visit, he asked Lobelia to get green cheese from the moon. She had to do it herself. When Baldrick heard the moon was made of green cheese, he could picture many juicy mice to chase and eat.
This led Baldrick to climb a tree to reach the moon he thought was sitting at the top. That didn't work so he came up with another plan.
I bought this book by Sandy Nightingale because I love the illustrations of a Witch. I fell in love with Baldrick the ingenious cat.
I need to try my hand at drawing and like this author's style. I bought 'Room on the Broom' for the same reason. You guessed it, my story for the new anthology for The Ten Penners has a witch in it.
November 25, 2024
The only book from my childhood I still own on my bookshelf! Cute and quirky tale about a cat’s nosy ambitions coming back to bite him a little bit - lovely illustration and a funny cat at the centre of the tale - one I hope other children cherish as much as I did!
March 25, 2015
Cat's Knees and Bee's Whiskers tells the story of Baldrick the cat who is in training to be a witch's cat. He loves nothing more than mice, chasing, stalking, and catching mice. So, when he hears that the moon is made of green cheese he thinks that there must be lots of mice on the moon and is determined to go. He tries everything to get there and ends up creating a potion that makes him into part bee so he can fly to the cheese moon. When he gets there the mice are huge and torment him, he ends up being saved from the mice by his witch but he takes a piece of cheese with him, which the great wizard needs, so he is revered as a hero.
The theme in this story is questionable because Baldrick goes against orders and doesn't follow rules but still, in the end is regarded as a hero and is rewarded for his actions. This is not something that we want kids to adopt as an idea, that if they do something wrong they could still be rewarded as long as the final outcome is good. But there are also some more valuable themes that are prevalent in the book about being yourself and that more/bigger is not always better in the case of the mice.
The illustrations in this book add a very valuable extra layer to the story, they show events that are only eluded to in the text or are not really mentioned at all. For example, while Baldrick is trying and failing to get to the moon the text just says that he's trying, but the illustrations show him trying to build a ladder and catapult himself there. These pictures add an extra element of humor to the book that is lacking for the most part in the text.
The theme in this story is questionable because Baldrick goes against orders and doesn't follow rules but still, in the end is regarded as a hero and is rewarded for his actions. This is not something that we want kids to adopt as an idea, that if they do something wrong they could still be rewarded as long as the final outcome is good. But there are also some more valuable themes that are prevalent in the book about being yourself and that more/bigger is not always better in the case of the mice.
The illustrations in this book add a very valuable extra layer to the story, they show events that are only eluded to in the text or are not really mentioned at all. For example, while Baldrick is trying and failing to get to the moon the text just says that he's trying, but the illustrations show him trying to build a ladder and catapult himself there. These pictures add an extra element of humor to the book that is lacking for the most part in the text.
February 14, 2015
Cat's Knees and Bee's Whiskers by Sandy Nightingale follows Baldrick, a cat, who is in training to be a witch's cat. The story recounts the crazy tasks the witch, Lobelia, puts him through. From riding a broomstick to baking sugar-frosted mice, Balderick must prove to the witch that he is ready to be a true witch's cat.
One of my favorite things about this book is the foreshadowing presented in the illustrations. Almost every page has a hidden image that shows some sort of worry or mischief. On one page, the moon gives a scared look as it shines down from the night sky and on another, a tea kettle gives the reader a sinister look. These illustrations may not seem to give any sort of foreshadow, but once you know the ending, you realize that they let the reader know that something unplanned is going to happen.
The illustrations are a big part of this book, as they set the mood of the story. The text gives a very surface level telling of the story, often just giving dialogue and listing the tasks Balderick is put up to. The illustrations make up for it by giving a true representation of what is actually happening at witch's cat training. The illustrations are all whimsical and crazy, with hectic emotion displayed on the characters' faces. Even inanimate objects have faces and this is makes the illustrations even more appealing.
One of my favorite things about this book is the foreshadowing presented in the illustrations. Almost every page has a hidden image that shows some sort of worry or mischief. On one page, the moon gives a scared look as it shines down from the night sky and on another, a tea kettle gives the reader a sinister look. These illustrations may not seem to give any sort of foreshadow, but once you know the ending, you realize that they let the reader know that something unplanned is going to happen.
The illustrations are a big part of this book, as they set the mood of the story. The text gives a very surface level telling of the story, often just giving dialogue and listing the tasks Balderick is put up to. The illustrations make up for it by giving a true representation of what is actually happening at witch's cat training. The illustrations are all whimsical and crazy, with hectic emotion displayed on the characters' faces. Even inanimate objects have faces and this is makes the illustrations even more appealing.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews