The Summer Nick Taught His Cats to Read
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
A Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year
“A marvelous debut…Sometimes it takes the right nudge to fall in love with books.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“This quirky tale filled with subtle humor makes a fun read-aloud, especially for cat lovers, literacy lovers, or anyone looking for a great story.” —School Library Journal (starred review)
It’s not easy to teach a cat to read, but one boy tries to anyway in this sweet and silly picture book debut that captures the challenges and rewards of learning to read.
Nick loves to read books—and he loves to play with his cats, Verne and Stevenson. So naturally Nick decides it’s a great idea to teach his cats to read. But Verne and Stevenson don’t appreciate when Nick wakes them up with a flashcard that says NAP. Nick finally piques Verne’s interest with words like MOUSE and FISH. But not Stevenson’s. While Nick and Verne go to the library, Stevenson hides under the porch. Will Nick ever find a way to share his love of reading with his feline friends?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Nick, a brown-skinned boy with a puff of curly hair, has two cats: Verne, who is pretty chill, and Stevenson, who makes Grumpy Cat look exuberant. Neither is happy when Nick turns his attention to a book: Verne lolls across the pages, and Stevenson sits on a stack of volumes, cleans his paws, and scowls. "So Nick decided to teach them to read," Manley writes, making a marvelous debut and it works. For Verne, anyway: "He practiced on his own, over and over, even after Nick went to bed." Soon, Verne has a library card and is borrowing "so many books that Nick could hardly carry them home." But where does that leave Stevenson? As any former reluctant reader knows, sometimes it takes the right nudge to fall in love with books; here, it's the discovery that cranky Stevenson is actually an artist. Berube's (Hannah and Sugar) softly textured paintings are funny, smartly composed, and deeply moving as she makes the cats' literary and artistic endeavors seem like the most natural thing in the world. Ages 4 8.
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