Author: Anne Michaels
Publisher: Tundra Books
Rating: WORTHY!
Illustrated by Emma Block
This is a highly whimsical book with a delightfully British tone. The author is Canadian, and though I don't normally care what authors look like, I have to say that I have seen a picture of her and she has an awesome look to her - like a character from a novel herself! It's written I assume, for younger readers, but it delighted me. It reminded me of several other books even as it proudly exhibited its own unique take on life. There's an element of Gail Carriger in it, also a touch of TS Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. It's sparsely illustrated in a child-like style, but the pictures are perfect for the story. The text is large, so the novel is very short. It consists of several stories linked only by the characters, so you can comfortably read them in any order.
Miss Petitfour has several cats: Captain Captain, Captain Catkin, Captain Clothespin, Clasby, Earring, Grigorovitch, Hemdela, Minky, Misty, Moutarde, Mustard, Pirate, Purrsia, Sizzles, Taffy, Your Shyness (although not necessarily in that order) and they are a lively bunch who like to travel with her by table cloth to the village, the cats clinging to each other's tail.
If you've never traveled by table cloth, I do advise it, but please remember that you must match the table cloth color and pattern to the needs of the day, and that you have to be prepared to visit only the stores to which the prevailing wind takes you on any given trip. Thus enabled, the five stories are these:
Miss Petitfour and the rattling Spoon - when Miss Petitfour runs out of marmalade, it's a crisis with which I fully empathize, and which must be addressed forthwith!
Miss Petitfour and the Jumble. Every five years the village has a jumble sale, so you know it must be high time to open the junk cupboard. Or is that wise?
Miss Petitfour and the Penny Black. The Penny Black is a very rare and extremely valuable British stamp from the Victorian days, and is the pride of Miss Petitfour's collection, so what do you think will happen when it happens to blow out of the window on a snowy day?
Miss Petitfour and the Birthday Cheddar. Adventures on birthdays are particularly adventurous when you're a table cloth short of a picnic, and there's a chilly river nearby.
Miss Petitfour and the "Oom". Miss Petitfour hears an Oom! While she has definitely not lost the Oom in her life, she does hear two of them. What on Earth is that noise and does it have anything to do with the confetti factory? Miss P and the cats find they must abandon the annual festooning festival to go in search of odd noises.
The novelty of the stories for me tended to wear off a bit the more I read of them, but this is probably a case of familiarity breeds discontent. I found myself wondering if I had read them starting with the last first, whether I might have found the first less adorable than I did and the last more, but of course there is no way to do that now! I recommend this book as a really fun read, but you might want to pace yourself and spread the stories out over several days so you don't become a dissatisfied glutton for them. Maybe keep the book in the bathroom and read a story each day, or read them to your kids one per night? The bottom line is that we need stories of this nature and I'm glad we have them and that I read them. This is a worthy read.
