Dr. Seuss Graphic Novel: Cat out of water by Art Baltazar

Fans of The Cat in the Hat will be thrilled to have a companion volume in graphic novel form, especially as graphic novels are so popular with young children. Sally and her brother Conrad are home alone after school and freshening up the fishbowl when the Cat in the Hat knocks on the door. The Fish is appalled and knows that there will be trouble if the children let the Cat in, but he is very persuasive promising that he will be good. But chaos ensues as he decides that The Fish should have a bigger place to swim in. When Thing 1 and Thing 2 arrive, they turn on every tap in the house and the children just can’t keep up trying to turn them off. They give in and hilarious hijinks occur as the house turns into a swimming pool. The Fish knows that the house must be fixed before Mother arrives home, and the Cat in the Hat comes up with some astonishing inventions to suck out the water, clean everything and scoop up the bubbles.

Art Baltazar’s illustrations are cute and the adventure he illustrates is very funny. The panels and dialogue are easy to follow and readers will relate to The Fish and his fears about the havoc that The Cat can perpetrate. Young readers could find Cat out of water a transition to chapter books, while younger children will be happy to follow the fun when it is read aloud and try to draw the characters at the back of the book. They are sure to want to read the second in the series The Grinch Takes A Vacation by Kaeti Vandorn.

Themes: Fish, Cats, Graphic novels, Humour.

Pat Pledger