Blue moon by Tricia Oktober

Ford St Publishing, 2015. ISBN 9781925000870
(Age: 4+) Recommended. Dreams. Cats. Fantasy.
As the cat kneads its dream mat, a web of wonders is produced, and cat closes her eyes and drifts away. On opening them she finds herself in a fantastic garden and spotting all things about cats will keep the readers glued to the pages as they turn. The place of dreams is made of catnip and milkweed, it has all sorts of possibilities, painting a portrait, going to a ball, swimming beneath the ocean, being the queen.
Each adventure is full of possibilities as the cat dreams of this wonderful place.
Children will love to recognise the situations presented and share their dreams.
Oktober's dream-like pictures perfectly suit the story, as readers will love finding the small things hidden on each page and recognise the many animals shown, following the meerkat on his journey as well.
All sorts of cats form all sorts of stories can be spotted by the astute readers, Puss in Boots, the Cat and the Fiddle, the Cheshire Cat amongst others. And this will give rise to a different discussion within the classroom or at home, about some of the classic stories which involve cats.
Tricia Oktober has won many awards for her illustrations and is the illustrator of several of my favourite books: The bush tail, a story set in Papua New Guinea, Drought and Bush babies.
Fran Knight