A Kitten in Gooseberry Park

Gooseberry Park #3

by Cynthia Rylant, Arthur Howard (Illustrations)

From Newbery Medalist Cynthia Rylant and illustrator Arthur Howard comes the third book in the beloved Gooseberry Park middle grade series.

Kona the Labrador and Gwendolyn the hermit crab love how much it’s been raining in Gooseberry Park. But the weather brings trouble to their home when a lost bobcat kitten is swept down from the mountain and away from his family. Murray the bat rescues the cub, but to bring him home, Kona and Murray will have to venture beyond the comfort and safety of their beloved park…and prepare themselves to say goodbye to their young new friend.

Genres: Childrens, Juvenile

112 pages, Hardcover

Published March 22, 2022

About the author

An author of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for children and young adults as well as an author and author/illustrator of picture books for children, Cynthia Rylant is recognized as a gifted writer who has contributed memorably to several genres of juvenile literature. A prolific author who often bases her works on her own background, especially on her childhood in the West Virginia mountains, she is the creator of contemporary novels and historical fiction for young adults, middle-grade fiction and fantasy, lyrical prose poems, beginning readers, collections of short stories, volumes of poetry and verse, books of prayers and blessings, two autobiographies, and a biography of three well-known children's writers; several volumes of the author's fiction and picture books are published in series, including the popular "Henry and Mudge" easy readers about a small boy and his very large dog.

Rylant is perhaps most well known as a novelist. Characteristically, she portrays introspective, compassionate young people who live in rural settings or in small towns and who tend to be set apart from their peers.

from bookrags.com

Reviews

[Desiree Hagen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cynthia Rylant needs no vouching for! She can handle being a master of children’s literature all on her own. We loved hearing another tale of the animal lives of Gooseberry Park. Another wonderful delight was how intrigued my five year old was about some of the fun words used like Deluge, Jubilee, & Departure, as well as having a mom from Canada we were all affectionately amused by the Canadian geographical names for the geese!

A family friendly mystery/adventure!

[Elles_shelves · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Kitten in Gooseberry Park continues the adventures of Kona the Labrador, Gwendolyn the Hermit Crab, and Murray the Bat from the books Gooseberry Park and Gooseberry Park and the Master Plan. In this story, a bobcat kitten has fallen into a gully on the mountain and ended up in Gooseberry Park far from his mother.. The animals all work together to make sure that Kitten is reunited with his mother in the mountains.
This is such a cute story with adorable illustrations. It tells about the importance of teamwork and friendship. It also tells how sometimes goodbye is a wonderful ending and a wonderful beginning at the same time. This would be a great story to add to a classroom or home library.

[Sam Wernert · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book was okay. I liked that it talked about many things that students would be learning about in the classroom like different types of weather and the seasons. It also used lots of words that students may be unfamiliar with like crisis, extraordinary, and thrilled so students' vocabulary will definitely grow when reading this book. Students may seek extra support in decoding words and finding the meaning of these new words. I feel that students would like this book because of all the different animals in it. This book could be used as an independent reading book for some advanced readers or it could also be used as a class read-aloud (only reading 1 chapter at a time) alongside a science unit.

[Danica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh, this whole series can really just be skipped. The first one was the best, but still had some bizarre ideas in it, the second contained enough worldly junk that I ended up skipping over parts (reading aloud to the kids) and throwing it away after finishing it, and the third was better but still not worth the time. We’ve really enjoyed other Rylant books, so this was a bummer.

[Karen Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another terrific book in the Gooseberry Park series.
Kindness and friendship of anthropomorphic animals speaking to one another. Some useful information, good vocabulary, and some problem solving. Kids would enjoy the adventure and get lots of gentle life lessons along the way.

[Ms. Arca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet little straightforward adventure with cute found family animal friendships, a sprinkle of jokes, a dash of life advice (‘I’m sorry you’re sad’) and nothing scary happy endings.

Perfect for young readers - want this series for my home library and kiddos too :)

[Faith DeLay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gooseberry Park is one of our family favorites for read aloud but this one wasn’t quite as good. There were also quite a few more characters whom I had to explain to the kids while reading because we forgot who was who.

[Michelle Halber]

In general fiction for children's, but a great set up from blue tape!

[Charlotte]

a sweet little story

[Angelika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kona, Gwen and Murray save bobcat kitten and return it to its mom in the mountains.

[Terra Frederick · Rating 5 out of 5]

The gang is back at it again with a rescue!!!

[Tricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute. Not as good as the original Gooseberry Park.