Amy
Don't tell my two dogs, but this book brings me great joy! I read it whenever I'm in its vicinity and it makes me laugh every time. Anyone who currently lives with or has lived with cats will completely relate to the feline antics. And the illustrations are hilarious – every cat has its own personality and you are sure to find your cat represented. The last page is my favorite; I remember as a child being woken up from a sound sleep by the sharp-as-pins teeth biting my ankles and toes through my bedspread. I think that's why I now have dogs.
A tear-jerker of a book (at least for me!) that reassures the “quiet ones” that we are perfect and important just as we are. It's not a sappy “special snowflake” story, but more like “use your natural talents to the best of your ability. You are important! Loud people are not inherently better than you! Tap into your intrinsic purpose!”
Another tear-jerker, although I think this one is universal, not just specific to me! It is a book about death. Straight up. I was drawn to the cover initially—the colors are “my colors” and I loved the blockprint look of the illustrations. I read it while at work, at the back register, and was fanning my eyes with my hands and sniffling by the end because it just hit me hard. The main character is a fox and the deceased is a blackbird but the feelings are raw human.
I am 100% in love with Farmhouse. The illustrations are gorgeous --bits and pieces of items (wallpaper, newspapers, etc.) that Blackall found in the actual, real life, run-down farmhouse that she discovered in upstate New York are used in the collage illustrations. In one illustration, the mother is nursing the youngest of her twelve children, and I'm thinking that may be a first in picture books?!? I could be wrong, but I was very excited to see that most natural part of life reflected in a children's book! The story is charming as is Blackall's back story of the farmhouse that appears at the end of the book. (A bear lived in the basement! The muddy rags that turned out to be handmade dresses!) A lovely book for a person of any age, clearly!