Celebrity Cat: With Paintings from Art Galleries Around the World

by Meredith Hooper, Bee Willey (Illustrations)

It is Cats' Visiting Night at the Art Gallery, and from all over the town, cats have come to see the paintings. Most of all, they like looking at paintings with cats in them. But alas, there aren't many. Then the talented artist Felissima Cat steps in. Meredith Hooper's charming story features 6 gloriously funny reworkings of famous paintings, each shown alongside the original masterpiece. It provides an offbeat and entertaining introduction to the art of the world's greatest art museums, which will delight children, art devotees and cat-lovers alike.

Genres: Art, Picture Books, Cats, Animals, Childrens

40 pages, Hardcover

First published May 17, 2006

About the author

Meredith Hooper uses the storybook form in Who Built the Pyramid? to make the latest research accessible for a young audience. Meredith Hooper is an historian by training and the author of many books, ranging in subject from Antarctica to aviation, from the history of water to the history of inventions.
Hooper, born in 1939, graduated in history from the University of Adelaide, then studied imperial history at Oxford.

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I should have liked this; I tried to. But there aren't enough paintings featured, and they're reproduced small, and the cats are ugly. I do like the moral of the story, though, that cats are too independently wilful to be captured posing and that's why they don't show up more often. Fortunately there are lots of other art appreciation books for young children; skip this.

[Laura Lee Denby · Rating 4 out of 5]

One night in the city cats from all over head towards the art gallery for Cats’ Visiting Night. When the cats arrived at the gallery they noticed there were all different kinds of animals in the paintings but no cats in any of them, not a single one! The cats were not happy about this. A white cat called Felissima looks at the famous paintings in the gallery and knows that cats should be in all of them! Inspired by the visit Felissima goes home and begins to paint. She then exhibits her paintings to the cats at the gallery and they are all very excited. Felissima has painted cats in all of the famous paintings and the cats are happy, finally people can see how important they really are.
The paintings make Felissima into a celebrity cat and she goes to wonderful parties. Everyone wants to be her friend and speak with her now. The cat becomes tired of all of the attention and longs for her home in London.
She returns to the art gallery for a final night but she has not painted a picture this evening. Felissima explains to the cats that she realises now why the cats were left out. It is because they wanted to be. Cats are free spirits who do as they wish; they had chosen not to be in the paintings.
At the end of this story there is a review of all of the paintings in the book which span Van Gogh, Da Vinci, Rousseau and more. It all also suggests the reader explores more paintings where maybe cats could feature.
I think this book is an incredible resource. It really makes classic art accessible to children and inspires follow up activities and further research. This is the kind of book which really could inspire children to become interested in art and art history. It has a very cultural tone to the book, even from the view of the cats living in the city, visiting the gallery. It would be wonderful to follow up the reading of this book with a trip to a gallery.
This book is aimed at ages 6-9 and it is quite wordy so does require a good level of attention but the enchanting pictures will aid this.

[Friend of Pixie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Logan liked this, but only because it was about cats. If the characters had been dogs, he would probably have wondered off in the middle. I wanted to like it. It's about a cat who decides it isn't fair that there are so few cats in paintings, when there are so many dogs and cows and birds. So she starts repainting masterpieces such as the Mona Lisa, putting cats in remarkably apt places. In some cases, when you look back at the original painting w/o the cat, it does seem like something is missing! But the plot-line is kind of boring and seems like an afterthought. And at the end, we both wondered why we didn't get to see her finished self-portrait. I mean why was that part even in there? Although this briefly introduced Logan to well-known paintings, I don't think he'll want to read it often enough to get familiar with them. Good idea, not very well implemented.

[Carole Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did you ever think about a cat in some famous art paintings? Celebrity Cat takes you on a cat journey of thinking about how fun some paintings would be with cats in them. The Mona Lisa holding a cat in her lap. Maybe that's why she has that look on her face. Is Van Gogh's chair in his room missing a cat? Children may like to reimagine art work with cats in the picture. Just art fun for teasing the imagination of children of all ages.

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cute book for artists and their children, who may like cats, too! I enjoyed it!!

[Kennedy Osborne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Summary: In this book a group of cats gather every so often to view an art gallery. Every year they are disappointed at the fact that no cats were includes in any of the paintings. A cat named Felissima decided to change this by creating a replica but adding a cat so the painting was “complete”. As she traveled the world she decided that this problem of excluding cats was a problem everywhere. She became famous from her paintings that she was doing, but after a while just wanted to go home and be a regular cat again. At the next art gallery gathering the other cats were excited to see what she has created this time but were surprised when she hadn’t painted anything. She decided that the reason they weren’t included in all these paintings was because they chose not to be. At the end of this story is shows creating a brand new art piece that included only herself.

Major Theme: The main theme in this book would be if you want change you have to do it yourself.

Personal Response: I am a cat person so when I saw the book I was drawn to it. The way the author included what cats do was really funny to me because my cats are exactly how the author described the cats in the book. I also liked the fact that the main character wanted to see change so she decided to be the first one to do something about it.

Why I recommend this book: I would recommend this book because it shows kids that even if you aren’t included in a group you can make your way into being included. It shows that if you decided not be included anymore, that it is okay to make a new group and showing others that this is okay too.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

The cats are disappointed that most famous paintings in galleries do not feature cats...despite the fact that cats were most certainly there in the events pictured. One cat decides to remedy this by repainting many of the great masterworks and adding the cats where they belong. She becomes very famous and beloved among cats...but soon tires of the spotlight. Clever ending.

[TwoDrinks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Liked the concept and a great way to get children interested in art but I really HATED the style of drawing of the cats. I much preferred the book about Manchester Art Gallery (reviewed here somewhere).

[Tracy Schillemore · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cute story about cats who visit a museum only to realize that cats are not represented often enough in great art. One cat decides to travel the world and recreate famous works of arts with the addition of cats to the paintings.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun book taking paintings that most are familiar with from history and adding cats, as they should have been fro the beginning. But the real story is about the artist adding these cats to the paintings. Interesting!

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

My young son is intrigued by Classical Art pieces -- the Mona Lisa being his favorite -- and he loves, loves, loves cat (we have three, and fostered five more over the Summer). He may not have understood every single word in this book, but he definitely understood the story.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story is about a cat who decides to repaint famous works of art that neglect to rightfully include felines. Cute idea but the story doesn't really draw me in.

[Rosanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was okay. I am not a real cat lover, but I did like looking at some of the artwork.

[Catherine Austen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny picture book about cats who insert themselves into famous paintings. Dreamy artwork, funny story (heavy text), and a very cool way to introduce kids to art history.

[Kaethe · Rating 4 out of 5]

World masterpieces rendered with cats in them. What's not to love?

[Terri]

Meh.