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. The simple text ("the skunk saw a cat, and the worm saw a cat, and the bat saw a cat. And a bee sees a collection of multicolored dots a pointillist pussycat. A mouse cowers before the dragonlike creature of horror that bounds out of a blood-red background with blazing yellow eyes. But a flea sees a vast forest of dense hair to conquer. To a child, the cat looks like a pet: affectionate, big eyed, and adorable. What those features add up to depends on the eyes of the beholder, not to mention scale relationships, instincts, and history. It is the world we know but not as we know it."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. The experience is something like the seeing an image of a garden imagined from the perspective of an insect. Wenzel’s wonderful illustrations invite the reader into the eye of other animals. Bats recognise the cat through echolocation.
A worm underground senses the cat through vibrations in the soil.
Does a cat look the way we see it? As this book demonstrates, animals all perceive the world in different ways.Ī dog sees the cat as a nuisance, the mouse sees the cat as danger, and a fox sees the cat as prey (or certainly an easy target). They All Saw A Cat works along similar lines, with the text and the illustrations working together to challenge the reader to think more deeply about things that they take for granted. A Stone Sat Still stands out among the picture books I have reviewed for its apparently simple language and abstract themes.
It is as simple – and as complex – as that.īrendan Wenzel’s work is always mind-blowing. Along the way it greets a child and a mouse and fox and all kinds of other creatures.
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