The New York Times Book Review - Peter Brown
…repetitive but never redundant, every page revealing something insightful about both the cat and each new animal it encounters. Everything builds to a very satisfying ending as the cat looks at its own reflection in a puddle, and we see the cat from its own point of view…[Wenzel] avoids all the familiar feline tropes and uses the cat as a device to teach us about the other animals. They All Saw a Cat is as much about "they" as it is about a cat. I love that! And there's plenty more to love. The language is simple and lyrical. The illustrations are fun and energetic. I could go on, but words never do justice to great picture books. You really need to read They All Saw a Cat for yourself to appreciate all that Wenzel has accomplished.
Publishers Weekly
★ 07/04/2016
“The cat walked through the world, with its whiskers, ears, and paws,” writes Wenzel (Beastly Babies) at the opening of this perspective-broadening picture book. What those features add up to depends on the eyes of the beholder, not to mention scale relationships, instincts, and history. To a child, the cat looks like a pet: affectionate, big eyed, and adorable. But a flea sees a vast forest of dense hair to conquer. A mouse cowers before the dragonlike creature of horror that bounds out of a blood-red background with blazing yellow eyes. And a bee sees a collection of multicolored dots—a pointillist pussycat. The simple text (“the skunk saw a cat, and the worm saw a cat, and the bat saw a cat. Yes, they all saw the cat”) creates a powerful, rhythmic juxtaposition between word and image, and inventively varied renderings showcase a versatile, original talent at work, in media ranging from collage to pencil and watercolor. This is Wenzel’s first book as both illustrator and writer, and it’s marvelous—no matter how you look at it. Ages 3–5. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Aug.)
From the Publisher
"Beautifully imagines a cat through the eyes of all the animals it passes as it walks through the world"- Time Magazine, Top 10 Children's and YA Books of the Year
School Library Journal
12/01/2016
PreS-Gr 3—Readers see the world through a different set of eyes thanks to Wenzel's whimsical and eye-catching artwork as a child, a fox, a worm, and others look on as a tabby saunters through a variety of environments. Each distinctive and imaginative spread features a shape-shifting perspective—such as a bee's pointillistic view of the feline—set to a stripped-down, rhythmic text.
Kirkus Reviews
2016-06-01
Wouldn't the same housecat look very different to a dog and a mouse, a bee and a flea, a fox, a goldfish, or a skunk?The differences are certainly vast in Wenzel's often melodramatic scenes. Benign and strokable beneath the hand of a light-skinned child (visible only from the waist down), the brindled cat is transformed to an ugly, skinny slinker in a suspicious dog's view. In a fox's eyes it looks like delectably chubby prey but looms, a terrifying monster, over a cowering mouse. It seems a field of colored dots to a bee; jagged vibrations to an earthworm; a hairy thicket to a flea. "Yes," runs the terse commentary's refrain, "they all saw the cat." Words in italics and in capital letters in nearly every line give said commentary a deliberate cadence and pacing: "The cat walked through the world, / with its whiskers, ears, and paws… // and the fish saw A CAT." Along with inviting more reflective viewers to ruminate about perception and subjectivity, the cat's perambulations offer elemental visual delights in the art's extreme and sudden shifts in color, texture, and mood from one page or page turn to the next. A solo debut for Wenzel showcasing both technical chops and a philosophical bent. (Picture book. 6-8)
