Cleo the Cat

by Stella Blackstone, Caroline Mockford (Illustrator), Xanthe Gresham Knight (Narrated by)

Overview

Featured on the Children’s Book Council Hot Off the Press Reading List in March 2022!

A lonely, inquisitive cat explores the world around her while looking for a friend. Rhyming text and bold illustrations will engage young readers as Cleo finds both a friend and a home. Includes an online access link to audiobook.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781646865130
Publisher:	Barefoot Books
Publication date:	03/07/2022
Series:	Cleo the Cat
Pages:	26
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 6.50(h) x 0.65(d)
Age Range:	1 - 4 Years

About the Author

Award-winning author Stella Blackstone has written many of Barefoot's best-selling titles, including the Bear series and the Cleo the Cat series. She has been writing for children for over twenty years. Stella lives in Somerset, UK.

Caroline Mockford gained a degree in fine art from Norwich School of Art, England, before completing a teacher training course at Goldsmith's College, London. She went on to work as an art teacher and as an elementary school teacher, as well as an author and illustrator of children's books.

Xanthe Gresham Knight is an acclaimed writer and storyteller who performs across Europe and North America and who, according to the Arts Council of England, "speaks like a woman spitting jewels." Xanthe lives in East Sussex, England.

Editorial Reviews

Little ones will love Cleo! She's an inquisitive orange cat searching for a friend -- and a home. As Cleo ventures through the garden and inside a house, she happily discovers everything she's been looking for. Featuring simple, rhyming text and bold, bright illustrations filled with visual clues, Cleo the Cat will captivate the youngest audiences.

bn.com

Mockford's (What's This?) brief rhyming text describes a lonely cat that finds a friend and a home. A seemingly continuous black line provides a bold outline for Cleo the cat's warm orange and red tones. The feline wakes in a field painted in thick, textured brushstrokes and bursting with gingham flowers. The dense spreads, filled with geometric shapes and patterns, carry the basic story line ("Cleo finds a house/ Cleo looks inside/ Cleo hears a noise!/ Cleo tries to hide"). A Teddy bear leans against a bicycle; a soccer ball rests in a doorway. The closing pages find Cleo asleep on the lap of a child who has fed the cat and clearly taken a fancy to it. Youngsters, too, will likely have a soft spot for Cleo. Ages 1-6. (Oct.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

PreS-Simple, bold illustrations and a short rhyming text characterize this endearing tale about a cat that finds a friend and a home. The spare text ("Cleo wakes/Cleo winks/Cleo yawns/Cleo blinks") follows the feline through her day. Glimpses of a tricycle and teddy bear in a front yard, red boots and a bear on a kitchen floor, and fingers poking through fur lead up to the happy ending, and prompt the question, "Does a child live in this house?" As in Mockford's What's This? (Barefoot, 2000), the bright acrylic illustrations have a childlike quality and create a visual environment that welcomes involvement and captures attention. The expansive, color-filled backgrounds and black outlines make it easy for small eyes to view the central action of each picture. A thoroughly charming read-aloud for the youngest listeners.-Patti Gonzales, Los Angeles Public Library Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

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