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How to Be a Cat

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“The simplicity and flow of page design are beautifully done as viewers follow a kitten and his mother as she teaches him basic feline behavior.” —School Library Journal (starred review)In cut-paper artist Nikki McClure’s latest picture book, a kitten practices the basics of feline behavior over the course of a day. A single word of text per spread teaches readers “how to be a cat”—how to stretch, clean, pounce, feast—while the striking paper cuts illustrate the kitten’s attempts to imitate an adult cat’s mastery of each skill. At times the kitten triumphantly succeeds, and at other times the kitten struggles, in vignettes that range from whimsical to profound.A celebration of all things feline, How to Be a Cat also tells a universal story of mastering life skills, and of the sometimes tender, sometimes stern relationship between parent and child, teacher and pupil. Cat lovers of all ages will connect to this loving portrayal of a mentor-student relationship.“Purrrrfect for beginning readers and little artists with an eye for fine cut-paper compositions and craftsmanship.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)“The lively verbs and pictures will inspire young readers to imitate the kitten’s actions, all the way to the last page, when the two cats curl up to ‘Dream.’ Part concept book of actions, part a day in the life of a cat, the pages provide two kinds of narratives, no small feat for such a simple-looking story.” —New York Journal of Books“McClure’s cut-paper spreads can be mesmerizing.” —Publishers Weekly“McClure wonderfully captures the shape and movement of the feline form.” —The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

44 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 12, 2013

79 people are currently reading
531 people want to read

About the author

Nikki McClure

36 books95 followers
Nikki McClure of Olympia, Washington is known for her painstakingly intricate and beautiful paper cuts. Armed with an X-acto knife, she cuts out her images from a single sheet of paper and creates a bold language that translates the complex poetry of motherhood, nature, and activism into a simple and endearing picture.

Nikki McClure is a self-taught artist who has been making paper-cuts since 1996. As one of the more prominent visual artists involved with Olympia-based record labels K and Kill Rock Stars, as well as the Riot Grrrl movement in the early nineties, her work still embodies the fiercely independent fire that fueled the passion and creativity of that time period. She lives in Olympia, Washington.

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5 stars
291 (22%)
4 stars
455 (35%)
3 stars
435 (33%)
2 stars
106 (8%)
1 star
13 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 246 reviews
Profile Image for Mischenko.
1,028 reviews94 followers
June 28, 2019
Original paper art with easy reading for young ones. Some pages have only one word. My daughter just loved it. A must for any cat-loving child!
Profile Image for Dave Schaafsma.
Author 6 books32.1k followers
August 18, 2017
Third cut-out book I have read by Olympia (WA) artist McClure. By “cut-out” I mean the whole book is one long continuous piece of paper, with the images cut out.

My Goodreads friend Raina explains it in a comment to me: “In every original piece of art, she connects everything so you can pick it up by one end and not have any pieces drop. Because everything in the world is truly connected!”

Yeah!

How to be a cat: Stretch, clean, pounce, feast, and so on!

This book, for toddlers, has one book per spread, as a kitten learns from a cat how to master life skills. Ultimately, this is 1) toddler vocabulary; 2) a growing-up story comprised of single words to form a narrative; 3) a story of adult-child relations, such as teacher-student, parent-child. Sweet and insightful.

At least one star alone just for my being a cat lover living in multi-cat house to fellow cat lover.
Profile Image for Afaf Ammar.
986 reviews578 followers
December 2, 2021
قصة دافئة برسومات فنية مبهجة عن قطة صغيرة تتعلم من أمها كيف تكون قطة في خطوات بسيطة، تعكس دفء العلاقة بين الأم وصغيرها،
أحببتها وأدفأت قلبي 💕💕

21.11.2021


Profile Image for Moonkiszt.
2,957 reviews333 followers
October 29, 2022
Featured in a grandma reads session.

I'm all about Nikki McClure. . .my kiddos are all about her art through cutting paper. . .we always take time to visit her website (nikkimcclure.com) to see what she has going on lately. . .and did with this book, too. Here is what she say's about how she does her art:

I cut my images from black paper with an X-Acto knife. Everything is connected. It is all one piece of paper, yet now it holds a story.

We marvel at the idea of one piece of paper holding the scenes we've seen. . .astonishing! Beautiful - and what patience and skill comes from the act of doing it. Amazing.

So, yeah. We like cats. But we really like Nikki.
12 reviews
Read
August 7, 2022
Read this in Kinokuniya San Francisco today lol
Profile Image for Tasha.
4,165 reviews135 followers
April 9, 2013
Small Kitten follows the lead of Big Cat as they go through their day in this very simple picture book. With just one word per page, the story is told more in the images than in the words. The little kitten practices how to clean himself, how to hunt bugs and butterflies, and how to listen. As the two of them explore the house and garden, the book shows a day filled with exploration and learning.

Told through dynamic cut-paper art, this simple book has a powerful sense of style. The images are black and white, cut from a single piece of paper with just a touch of blue at times. Thanks to this, the images pop and would work well for sharing with groups of children.

Ideal for toddlers, this is a clear and beautiful look at feline fun. Appropriate for ages 1-3.
Profile Image for Sondra Eklund.
445 reviews5 followers
March 30, 2013
This book is visually striking, with black-and-white pictures of very realistic and cat-like cats. The only color is the light blue words and the butterflies that flutter across the page for the cats to stalk. One word per page. Not sure it would work for storytime, but it would be a lovely book to share with a child, especially one who has a cat.
Profile Image for Heidi-Marie.
3,855 reviews88 followers
January 26, 2016
Grabbed this on my way in to Movement Storytime. It was perfect. A good length and text amount for the the younger kids I've been getting. And all of those actions coincide with movement really well, too. I like the illustrations as well.
Profile Image for Rachel.
Author 5 books225 followers
October 24, 2013
Just beautiful, love the solid illustrations with little color, the interaction between the two cats and the use of one bold word for each action.
Profile Image for Heather McC.
1,046 reviews7 followers
July 31, 2019
Humans can learn plenty of basic skills from their feline friends....just stop moving long enough to pay attention.
Profile Image for Gen-v.
80 reviews
June 29, 2023
Here's why we need to be born as a cat in our next life!
Profile Image for Ella.
39 reviews1 follower
July 15, 2022
“I just love cats.” -Ella
Profile Image for Amy Layton.
1,641 reviews81 followers
February 23, 2020
Look into what it's like to be a cat with McClure's picture book.  With bold black and white illustrations and a great rhyming scheme, McClure makes being a cat look super easy!  It's fun, adorable, and makes for a wonderful quick read.  Great for children learning how to read and learning about rhyme, and great for cat-loving families.  Perfect for PreK-1!

Review cross-listed here!
Profile Image for Joella.
938 reviews45 followers
April 13, 2013
So without even really looking at the cover I opened this book. And on the first page I thought, "This looks like a Nikki McClure book because the black and white illustrations are so beautiful." Then I looked at the cover and saw it was a Nikki McClure book and thought, "No wonder I was so impressed with the illustrations."

Indeed, this is another example of how Nikki McClure knows just how to make a great book full of impressive illustrations. And this one happens to be on cats which goes well with little kitty-lovers. Each page has one word that describes one bit of a cat's life (like "clean" or "pounce" or "scratch"). Yet when looking at the illustrations you also get a sense of more than just a word per page...each word strung together makes a story. And I also love the blue spot color (and the butterflies). This is a charming book.
Profile Image for Kaethe.
6,553 reviews531 followers
September 16, 2016
5 Oct 2013
2 Apr 2016

The simple black and white art will appeal to very young children, I expect, just as Black on White or Millions of Cats do. And then there's also the appeal of cats. For the adults in the room, there's the opportunity to marvel at the cut paper and the way the art is constructed: it's way amazing. Finally, there's the extra fillip of noticing that the big cat has no eyes, and no whiskers, and then reading the note at the end explaining about the real blind old cat the book sis based on.

Deceptively straightforward.

Library copy.
29 reviews2 followers
September 18, 2013
I absolutely loved this book and think that it deserves to win the Caldecott award, hands down. It is a story of a big cat and a small cat, and the big cat is teaching the small cat how to do various things (jump, pounce, stretch). I found the illustrations in this book to be very fitting with the story, and though it doesn't have many words, the book definitely teaches a lesson. Through his successes and fumbles, the small cat overcomes small duties and becomes more and more like big cat. It is, I believe, the authors way of teaching kids to blossom into young adults. I think that this book would be appropriate in a classroom library for grades K-4. It would be a perfect read-aloud for the beginning or end of the day.
Profile Image for Becky.
6,145 reviews303 followers
February 27, 2019
First sentence: Stretch.

Premise/plot: The little kitten that stars in How To Be A Cat has a LOT to learn, but she has a good teacher. Each spread of this board book--originally a picture book--features just ONE word. But somehow, someway there still manages to be a story conveyed.

My thoughts: I love, love, love cats. The black and white illustrations are striking, engaging, and expressive. The illustrations are at the heart of this simple story.

Text: 3 out of 5
Illustrations: 5 out of 5
Total: 8 out of 10
Profile Image for Rae.
202 reviews1 follower
January 3, 2020
My niece is now 9mos and she loves this book. I think the black and white graphics (with the occasional blue butterfly) are very engaging for her while more colors are distracting. She likes finding the blue butterfly when it's on the page. And turning the pages.

Not sure how much she cares for the "story" yet - but this book doesn't pretend to tell a great epic. You can act out the pages as well. Her favorite page is "Lick" because you get to pretend to lick her. Mine is "Stretch" or "Pounce" because they're fun to act out.
Profile Image for Pamela.
16 reviews1 follower
March 29, 2013
I love the personality drawn into the kitten. She perfectly captures the essence of anyone trying to learn and do something just right. How many of us like small kitten have “sneaked a peak” to make sure we were doing something just like everyone else.

This could have been a wordless picture book the one word pictures were so precise in their portrayals.
Profile Image for Anna.
2,421 reviews15 followers
February 5, 2018
Beautiful artwork of cats. It's amazing how they were made from black paper and then the color was digitally added. I loved the artwork. The book isn't really a story. It has one word per page or illustration that pertains to what the cats are doing. Examples: Lick (they're washing their face) and etc. I still loved the book though.
Profile Image for Judi Paradis.
491 reviews17 followers
February 6, 2016
If you want to be a cat (and there is a lot to be said for the life of a domestic feline), this is a great place to start. This simple picture book describes how to go about it, with easy to read text and great wood-cut pictures. I love this one, and most kids do too.
Profile Image for Drew Graham.
1,071 reviews40 followers
September 8, 2016
If you want to be a cat there are certain feline behaviors you must master.

This is a pretty neat little book about cats, unique in illustration style and sparse in text. Some of the word choices seemed a bit off to me, but overall it's just fine for young cat lovers.
Profile Image for Lara.
4,210 reviews346 followers
May 13, 2013
Crisp, black and white illustrations and a very simple concept. I can see this being fun to act out with a child while reading it, since the text consists of all action words.
Profile Image for Linda Atkinson.
2,444 reviews22 followers
May 28, 2013
This beautifully illustrated book could almost turn me into a cat lover;-)
3,239 reviews
August 5, 2013
Cut-paper illustrations and single words of text show a kitten's attempts to imitate an adult cat's mastery of such skills as stretching and stalking.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 246 reviews

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