Four Hungry Kittens

by Emily Arnold McCully

In a wordless story, four kittens share adventures and dangers around the farm while their mother is away hunting food, and they receive help from some unlikely residents. By the Caldecott Medal-winning illustrator of Mirette on the High Wire.

Genres: Picture Books, Cats, Childrens, Animals

32 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2001

About the author

Emily Arnold McCully received the Caldecott Medal for Mirette on the High Wire. The illustrator of more than 40 books for young readers, she divides her time between Chatham, New York, and New York City.

Reviews

[Sadia Mansoor · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first wordless book I have ever read.. One can easily understand the story through pictures only!

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Four kittens in a barn look for something to eat. The mother cat is also looking for something for the kittens to eat, but away from the kittens. While the mother is away the kittens get into trouble with the farmer. Luckily the farm dog eventually takes a liking to the kittens and saves them from danger. When the mother cat returns they stay friends. The problem with this book was that I could not immediately tell that the mother cat was a mother cat; I thought she was one of the kittens that was going off on its own. I did not understand what some of the bottles or sacks inside the barn implied since I have not lived or worked on a farm. This book may be good for children familiar with farms, or that enjoy cats. Then again, some will enjoy telling their own story even if they don't get exactly what is really going on in the pictures.

[Kristie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wordless picture book. Good for dialogic reading.

[Chrissy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wordless. Shows a farm dog that takes care of four kittens while the mother cat takes off for the day.

[Sydnee Lim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four Hungry Kittens was a wordless picture book that tells the tale of four troublesome kittens who stray away from their mom on the hunt for food. The kittens discover all sorts of new and dangerous things in the outside world away from their mom. There are no words in this book, so the thoughts of the character are left for the reader to interpret.

I think that wordless picture books are a great resource to use for younger students or students who are just learning how to read. It gives teachers a great opportunity to spark conversation. Student opinion and voice can be collected with these books by asking students what they think is happening or what they predict. I think these books can also be used to help older students infer as well as other critical skills used in reading. This causes students to look more into the illustrations of the book and try to understand what the author wanted to convey.

[Kira Hollars · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite not having a single word in the story, this book tells a sweet tale of four hungry kittens who become separated from their mother cat and explore different places for food. Throughout the book, there is a dog who acts quite oppositely to the stereotypical dog vs. cat stereotype and takes care of these four kittens while their mother is trapped in a barn. The dog tries to feed the hungry kittens his own bone and alerts the farmer when the kittens fall into a milk jug. He goes as far as to shoo away a large bird that was trying to snatch up one of the kittens when they were outside. What makes this book so compelling, though, is the beautifully created illustrations. The phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words” applies greatly here as each page tells its own potion of this sweet story of unlikely friends and all the mischief little kittens can get into. 5 stars!! Would recommend to anyone seeking out a beautiful story told through even more beautiful illustrations!

[Lneme2651ung.Edu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summary: This story starts on the cover and continues on every page. This is a wordless picture book about all of the mischief that 4 hungry kittens get into when mama goes out to hunt.

Evaluation: The illustrations in this book are very well done. I really like this book because of how easy it is to follow the storyline with the illustrations.

Teaching: This book could be used to teach inferencing.

[Jo Oehrlein · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dog plans nursemaid to 4 hungry kittens in the barn, while their mother stalks a mouse/rat.

[Robert Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Splendid wordless book, with watercolor illustrations of life on a farm for four kittens in search of food. Very underrated in my opinion.

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want those kittens! They're so cute! Told entirely in pictures, this story describes how a mother cat leaves her kittens in the barn to hunt mice, and what the hungry kittens do while she's gone. The dog seems to understand that the little kitties are hungry and offers them his bone, which, of course they don't know what to do with. Meanwhile, mama cat has chased a mouse into a feed bin and gotten closed in. What a good-hearted dog! He watches over the kittens, keeping them from danger, and even alerts the farmer as to mama's predicament. Will those kittens ever get a meal? I loved this story--very cute!!

[Rebecca Ferguson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Text to self- the kittens were scared of the dog at first, but then the dog helped the kittens out it shows being protected
Text to Text- the pictures show the kittens being scared and the dog being much bigger so I could remember how much smaller the kittens looked than the dog but the dog ended up being very nice to the much smaller kittens
Text to World- This would be good to relate to a younger child who might be scared of a male teacher or something that may look scarier or bigger to them but is ends up being helpful.

[Becky B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Four little kittens have fun and get into trouble as they look for food around the farm. A helpful dog tries to keep them safe and fed, but it turns out momma cat has it covered.

The watercolor illustrations in this, while very well done, are not exactly the type of illustrations that kids go for. I think the illustration style will appeal more to adults. Kids should still like following the kittens on their adventures around the farm. Like all wordless books, this one lends itself to a myriad of activity options for teachers like having kids help write out text to go with the dialogue.

[Maria Shuffit · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a crazy cat lady who is beginning to delve into the world of wordless picture books, this title really leapt out at me. I loved the watery art style used in the illustrations, but the story left something a little lacking - without the title giving it away, I wouldn't have really been able to tell what the kittens were looking for. It was a cute enough book, but did not convey a story as well as some others.

[Abby · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some kittens get separated from their mother (a barn cat), and a dog protects them until the family is reunited. It has no words, relying only on the illustrations which aren't quite strong enough to carry the story on their own and make me care about it. It has some cute moments, but it's not very substantial.

[Naomi · Rating 1 out of 5]

It is a picture book with absolutely NO words. I am not sure what story it was even trying to tell. It showed various scenes and only one had to do with the kittens trying to get milk. I tend to remember a nursery rhyme that was bases off the four hungry kittens theme and that is what I thought this was.

[Keegan Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has no text. You can have your child tell you the story or you can make up a story to tell your child using the pictures. I think that it's a good type of book to exist, but it's hard to be passionate about it, right? That's why I gave it just two stars.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a nice wordless picture book that describes the antics of a family of cats on a farm. The illustrations are lovely and the "story" is engaging in a truly wordless book. We enjoyed narrating this story aloud to one another, taking turns with each page.

[Kayla · Rating 2 out of 5]

I typically enjoy wordless picture books because my kids like to talk about what's happening in the pictures, but while the heart of this story is sweet, the illustrations are somewhat tricky to decipher.

[Kim Foy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the adorable story of four farm kittens who go on many adventures while their mother is away. There are no words, but water color illustrations of their explorations. This allows much interaction including conversation and predictions regarding what is happening in the pictures.

[Tressa Sands · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the textures of watercolor in this book. Chose it because I thought it would be good to have a wordless book on my list. The story took a minute to understand what was happening, but I ended up recommending it to two other people! I thought the ending was very sweet.

[Naomi · Rating 1 out of 5]

PBW

[Mckinley · Rating 2 out of 5]

wordless, water color feel

[Bree · Rating 4 out of 5]

Notes:
not usually a fan of wordless picture books, but this one is so pretty
both my kids love barn cats, so it appealed to them

[Ashley Zander · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was super cute.

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This wordless picture book will help children learn to "read" a story by interpreting the action in the very nice watercolor illustrations.

[Peacegal · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't say a lot about this book as nothing really happened.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wordless. I wasn't familiar with her earlier work. It's good.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

While Mama Cat is away, a farm dog looks after her kittens and keeps them out of danger.