Hip Cat

by Jonathan London, Woodleigh Marx Hubbard (Illustrator)

Hip Cat journeys to the city by the bay to live his dream of being a jazz musician.

Genres: Picture Books, Music, Childrens, Art, Fiction

40 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Jonathan London is the author of several celebrated children's books. His commitment to honoring the wonders of the natural world has been lauded by readers and critics alike. He is the author of more than 70 children's books, many of which are about nature. He's also the author of the popular Froggy series. He lives in Graton, California with his wife and two sons.

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hip Cat embodies a playful, poetic style. This book would be great for teaching about rhyme or poetry. Lessons of perseverance and passion underlie the text. The illustrations use color and contrast in interesting ways, within a surrealist style. While there was not a strong sense of plot, I think there are many students who would enjoy the themes of animals, music, art, word play, and dedication.

[Madelaine O'Neil]

I thought this was a good funky book that was fun to read. The illustrations were interesting and colorful, which I really liked. There was a lot of rhyming in the book and it kept sounding like a song to me when I was reading it in my head. This book would be fun to read out loud to children because of all the onomatopoeias and rhyming. Another thing I liked about this book was that it was encouraging for children to explore music, which isn't always done in school. I think this would be a good book to have for younger children and for me to read out loud to them.

[Jmay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saw the "Reading Rainbow" version. It was cute and 90s cool.

[Susan Kosel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great beat.

[Sean Harding · Rating 3 out of 5]

London Odyssey #62
And we are going hip with every single jazz term you can think of in twenty seconds surrounding an anthropomorphictale of a cat.
Play that funky music!

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jonathan London is best know from his many Froggy books. The book though that caught my eye at the library was Hip Cat published by local publishing house Chronicle Books. I got it at first because of the Matisse style cover and the fact that it had a jazz cat on the cover.

Hip Cat ends up being a cat and dog themed introduction to San Francisco's jazz history just as The Blues of Flats Brown introduces the history of blues and its ties to slavery but told through the point of view of a musical dog.

The title character is a saxophone playing cat who goes to the City to make his fortune playing jazz. Unfortunately it takes a lot to make an impression on a city already filled with talented musicians. Hip Cat has to make ends meet by working at the Doggie Diner which of course, for this book is run by actual dogs bearing a striking resemblance to the iconic old logo.

It helps to know something about San Francisco and jazz before jumping into this book. Without that prior knowledge, the book is still colorful and cute but it lacks the foundation that makes this off the wall book all the more special.

[James Govednik · Rating 4 out of 5]

For ages 6-8 (as a read-aloud for the 6-year olds), this playful book takes us on an artist's journey to find his mews. The rhyming verse makes joyful use of a "hip," jazz-lingo-infused, beatnik style--I dare you to try to read this out loud without smiling. A great text for modeling the use of descriptive words for action and sound: bobbed, swung, screeched, skonked, purred, barked, wailed, moseyed, jumping, stomping, tapping, bopping, hopping--just a sample! There are also nonsense words, scat-style. The text is embedded into the illustrations and makes use of creative fonts and shapes to help carry the meaning. For teachers with a dramatic flair, this would make a great book to dramatize for your students, esepcially if you can ham it up, beatnik-style. From a music-standpoint, it serves as an introduction to the free-spirited, individual nature of the jazz genre, with some references to the San Francisco jazz scene.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some time in the past few years my local library started putting its records online. I recently decided to look up my account and discovered, much to my delight, that I could look up any book I'd ever borrowed!

Turns out 'Hip Cat' was the very first book I ever took out; it was 1997, I was 5, I don't know what I thought of it...but as I've been reading every day since then, it has to have been good :)

Incidentally cats are still my favorite animals & I went on to play the saxophone enthusiastically through my teenage years...clearly this book left its mark

5* & a big thank you to Jonathan London

[Fisal Ansari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Age:
Grades 8-YA

Genre:
Realistic Fiction

Diversity:
Hip cat hep cat be bop beepin, A cat that plays jazz music and tries to earn a living.

Illustrations:
Colored illustration, lots of contrasts made with colors used, black and whites and reds, yellows. Alternative style drawings of cat as human.

Personal response:
This was a great and interesting read because it was realistic and talked about stuff like paying rent. It was fun to read.

Curricular or programming connections:
Writing lesson.

[Daria · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the first picture books I bought as a "grown up" and it is still one of my all-time faves! Oobie-do John "the sax man, scat man, the long sleek cat man" is a "bad mad rad cat.." who plays the saxophone, but finds it hard to eek out a living. The jazz-inspired rhythm of this book makes it impossible to read it without feeling like a beret wearing, finger snapping cat and the illustrations complement the text in vivid primary colors that dance across the page.

[Randie D. Camp, M.S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hip Cat is a sassy saxophone playing jazz musician. He travels to the big city to do what he loves.

The illustrations fit the sassy tone of Hip Cat and expresses the style of jazz. The text has rhythm and makes a good read aloud.

[Michele · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love, love, love this book. You are able to feel the emotion and movement of jazz music through the text and lively illustrations.

[Cana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mommy says: Cana didn't like this book when she read it quietly to herself, but when I got ahold of it and read it out loud in the right rhythm and tone, she found it to be LOTS more fun.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

playful use of language and sound

[Kendra Metz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this introduction to jazz for my two year old.