Cheetah Can't Lose

by Bob Shea, Bob Shea (Illustrator)

Overview

It's race day, and once and for all, it's time to determine the better feline: little cats or big cheetah.

Cheetah might be bigger, taller, stronger, faster . . . but the little cats have some tricks up their sleeves, so don't count them out!

With his signature wit and bold, graphic art, Bob Shea brings us an irresistible story about the difference between brains and brawn.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061730832
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	02/19/2013
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	375,444
Product dimensions:	8.92(w) x 10.64(h) x 0.37(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Bob Shea has written and illustrated over a dozen picture books, including the popular Dinosaur vs. and Ballet Cat series, I’m a Shark, and Oh, Daddy! His characters and animations have appeared on Nick Jr., Disney Junior, and PBS Kids. Bob spends his days writing and drawing. He can be found online at www.bobshea.com.

Bob Shea has written and illustrated over a dozen picture books, including the popular Dinosaur vs. and Ballet Cat series, I’m a Shark, and Oh, Daddy! His characters and animations have appeared on Nick Jr., Disney Junior, and PBS Kids. Bob spends his days writing and drawing. He can be found online at www.bobshea.com.

Editorial Reviews

Cheetah is insufferably competitive. When he hears that his two little cat friends are excited about the “big race day, ” he interjects, “The one I always win because I am big and fast and you always lose because you are little and cats?” To teach Cheetah a lesson, the cats devise a series of increasingly humiliating tricks, masked as competitions, that capitalize on Cheetah’s clueless arrogance, weighing him down with heavy “winner shoes,” a vision-obscuring crown, several pies, and an ice cream sundae. Suddenly mortified to see Cheetah robbed of his self-image (an epiphany that gives the title a deeper meaning), the cats name him the winner of the day. Shea, returning to the more textured and stylized characterizations of Race You to Bed (2010), has the cats’ scheme unfold against a crisp white backdrop; propping is minimal, and subtle drop shadows provide the only clues of a stable sense of gravity. The story’s thought-provoking conclusion is equally striking, albeit subtly argued: even a richly deserved comeuppance can go too far, and real friends overlook one another’s foibles. Ages 4–8. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

A high-volume victory for compassion. ” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Praise for I’M A SHARK: “Warm up your performance skills for the exclamatory narrative, and watch your audience become a school of kid-sized great whites before your very eyes.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

Praise for I’M A SHARK: “There will be no need to fear for Shark’s enduring popularity; here he proves he’s one refreshing delight.” — Kirkus Reviews

Praise for I’M A SHARK: “The oversize but spare drawings of a boastful young shark declaring his bravery guarantee giggles.” — School Library Journal

Praise for OH, DADDY!: “The gentle humor evident in the contrasts between text and pictures, as well as the scenes of the father doing things outrageously wrong, will keep kids entertained.” — School Library Journal (starred review)

Praise for OH, DADDY!: “Busy parents will want to try this formula of patience plus humor.” — Publishers Weekly

“The art’s lively energy keeps the book buzzing … Kids will enjoy having one over on Cheetah as they see what’s coming, and they’ll appreciate an ending twist in which the loudmouthed braggart does not learn a lesson and the smaller felines suggest that winning isn’t actually everything.” — ALA Booklist

From the Publisher

Praise for I’M A SHARK: “Warm up your performance skills for the exclamatory narrative, and watch your audience become a school of kid-sized great whites before your very eyes.

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

The art’s lively energy keeps the book buzzing … Kids will enjoy having one over on Cheetah as they see what’s coming, and they’ll appreciate an ending twist in which the loudmouthed braggart does not learn a lesson and the smaller felines suggest that winning isn’t actually everything.

ALA Booklist

Praise for I’M A SHARK: “Warm up your performance skills for the exclamatory narrative, and watch your audience become a school of kid-sized great whites before your very eyes.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

PreS-Gr 3—Cheetah always has to win. On the title page, readers see him looking in the mirror flexing his muscles. Meanwhile his two kitten friends have something up their furry sleeves as their kyuuto shushing faces reveal. In color-coded dialogue, they announce (their colors intertwined) that it is the day of the big race. The retro artwork is kid-friendly, flat with textures as if done in crayon, with lots of little motion lines, and a palette of mostly orange and blue, all creating a flow of action. The two kittens know Cheetah oh so well, and entertain themselves (at his expense) before the big race by sponsoring various other competitions, all contrived to slow him down. They use a mixture of cunning and flattery, awarding Cheetah with such prizes as wooden platforms they call winner shoes. The pacing is energetic and lively-untethered by any setting and formulated for those young listeners who would rather be tearing across the yard than sitting and reading. Written for those who must endure the antics of younger ones who pout and cry if they lose, this title is an apt choice to open a discussion about dealing compassionately with someone who always has a competitive edge.—Sara Lissa Paulson, The American Sign Language and English Lower School, New York City

School Library Journal

Loudmouth speedster Cheetah is sure that race day will be a walkover, but two clever little cats have other ideas. Much like Shea's little red roaring dinosaur (Dinosaur vs. Bedtime, 2008, etc.), for all that he's bigger than anyone and kitted out in a tracksuit, Cheetah obnoxiously announces at the outset that he's winning every race. Not only do his jokes fall flat--"Oh boy! If you guys had pajamas, I would be them! Because I'm the cat's pajamas--get it? Never mind"--but so does he after scarfing down five pies in a preliminary pie-eating "race" and the huge sundae that his smiling feline competitors present as a reward; they also award him boxes for his feet and a too-big crown to cover his eyes as "prizes" in other events before the main race. Shea cranks up the energy with loud hues and figures that bound across broad expanses of white surrounded by emphatic bursts of multicolored text. He brings this variant on a trickster tale (most recently retold in Nathan Kumar Scott's The Great Race, illustrated by Jagdish Chitara, 2012) to an unexpected close: Rather than glory in crushing Cheetah's self-esteem, the cats give him their first-place medals and assure him that yes, indeed, he won that race too. A high-volume victory for compassion. (Picture book. 5-8)

Kirkus Reviews