Life is sweet

Lompie and Nicky… not our pictures, but our cats looked exactly like these two cats!!  They were like two children…and you can click HERE to read about Nicky and Lompie….As a cat-lover, I want to blog a few books about cats and also some lovely poems! Enjoy!!

Image: lovereading.co.uk

Image: puffin.co.uk

These first two books are both books on my shelf! Great books if you work with children or gifts to children age 9 and up to read…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This book is really a MUST-have if you’re a cat-lover! The pages are glossy and there’s interesting info about cats and cat-quotes too! This is a fantastic gift to someone that’s a cat-lover! It’s also a diary…any-year-diary…

 

How to draw a cat…one way! Image from the book:

 ”The Complete Guide to Drawing and Illustration”…A Practical and Inspirational Course for Artists of all abilities by Peter Gray.

The following three books- by Anne Fine –  are really the most hilarious cat-books I’ve read!! Yes, if you’re a teacher…and a booklover!! you DO read books that children read too…well, that’s me…I’m a lover of children’s books!! They are the best!! If you want to spoil a child, this is really THE book(s) to have! I’ve got the first two books and have used it with children in Primary and even with slow readers age 12/13 and they just LOVE these books!! Children in Primary had begged me to continue reading from these books, as I’d always kept it for that last 10-15 min of the day. They couldn’t pack their stuff away fast enough to sit quietly and ready to listen. I’ve used it with a slow reader, age 12 and she wasn’t really very keen to listen/read from the books and once I’d started it, she couldn’t wait to read the entire book. You can get any child to read, it all depends on your enthusiasm and the example you as an adult set for the child. Children that don’t love reading, would love reading if they are allowed to read comics! As long as they read!! You can buy them Asterix and Obelix to get them into reading… make it fun for any child to enjoy reading! I always say to  children that tell me they hate reading…the reason is..that they’ve never been introduced to good stories/stories THEY like and interesting books.  As a qualified library teacher it was part of my job -the first nine years of my teaching, -to spend the library’s budget on books to be used by teachers in subjects and for children to read. I can still recall books children had big fights about and there were always endless waiting lists for all those fiction books. One way to get them into reading was to read only the first  two chapters and then watch the fighting! hahaha…sometimes when their name was on a waiting list and they forgot to get the book, when it was their turn, there were some really big sparks, but if you snooze…you lose! that was our slogan in the library!!

One particular book that is still fresh in my mind, is a book written by Jenny Seed…”The 59 Cats”…this is really a funny/good book and any South African reading here…should try and get hold of this book for your child age 6-8…it’s about an old lady with all these cats…59 of them! and the people of the town want her to get rid of them and they even went to the Mayor! Sadly, she had to get rid of them, but there’s a happy ending to this story! She got her 59 cats back! Get the book and see why!!

Jenny Seed is one of South Africa’s most prolific and widely published English children’s book authors.and was of the first to be published internationally. Since the publication of her first book in 1968 in the UK, Mrs Seed was for quite a while one of a handful South African English children’s book authors that produced indigenous children’s books of an exceptional quality. Many of her books had been translated into Afrikaans (and some into German). Professor Elwyn Jenkins considers her to be presumably the most widely read English children’s book author in the country and certainly one who had a considerable didactic impact on children because she was so widely published. It is therefore no wonder that Jay Heale calls her “the mother or perhaps grandmother of South African English children’s literature”.

Jenny covers a wide spectrum with her writing – from folktales to adventure stories, some of them for early learners and ideal to be read aloud. It is, however, for her historical novels, also for different age groups, that she has become known.

In Jenkins’ book, Children South of the sun, he refers to the fact that Jenny Seed is moved by her liberal view of history and the urgings of Christian compassion to convey to her young readers, through the personal story of individuals, what she sees as both sides of the story. She impresses upon them how personal values can make a significant mark for good in the midst of great historical events over which the individual would seem to have little control. In keeping with her concern for objectivity, she bases her novels on meticulously accurate historical detail.

Because her historical novels are widely published, prescribed and read, her work occupies an exceptional place in the forming of the historical sensibilities of white South Africans (Jay Heale).

In 1983 her book, The New Fire, was honourably mentioned for the Percy Fitzpatrick Award and in 1987 Place among the stones became the first English book to be awarded with the MER Prize for children’s literature. The only reason that she didn’t won more awards and prizes for her books is the scarcity of such awards for English children’s books in South Africa.

The Children’s Literature Research Unit of the University of South Africa would like to rectify this in a small way in presenting Jenny Seed with this Certificate in recognition of her exceptional contribution to South African children’s literature.

On this link you can see this certificate awarded to Jenny Seed…
http://www.childlit.org.za/Cert%20J%20Seed.htm

Click HERE to read Anne Fine’s biography.

OKAY,OKAY.
So hang me.
I killed the bird.
For pity’s sake,
I’m a cat.

Poor Ellie is horrified when Tuffy drags a dead bird into the house. Then a mouse. But Tuffy can’t understand what all the fuss is about.

Who on earth will be the next victim to arrive through the cat-flap? Can soft-hearted Ellie manage to get her beloved pet to change his wild, wild ways before he ends up in even deeper trouble?

The hilarious antics of Tuffy and his family as told by the killer cat himself.

Okay,Okay!.
So slap my teensy little paws.
I messed up – big time

Tuffy can’t wait for Ellie and the family to go away on holiday. A week of freedom lies ahead – if only he can get away from the catsitter. But everything goes wrong when Tufty is catapulted into the arms of horrid, sweet-as-pie, Melanie.

Melanie has always longed for a lovely, cuddly ickle pussykins. And with the promise of cream, fresh fish and escape from the catsitter, Tufty loses all his dignity. Dressed up in baby-clothes and pampered like a pussycat, has the killer cat really gone for good?

OKAY,OKAY.
So stick my head in a holly bush!

Tuffy, the killer cat, knows what he likes. And he isn’t loving the ‘art’ that Ellie’s mum brings home from her new class. So what’s a cat to do?

A scratch here just happens to shred a painting. A nudge there somehow slips a clay pot off a shelf.

Dad hopes a particularly hideous sculpture will be next, but Tuffy’s having none of it.

The killer cat will go his own sweet way!

Mischief and mayhem rule in Anne Fine’s brilliant new story, with hilarious illustrations by Steve Cox throughout. It is perfect for developing readers aged 5-8 years. (for slow readers or children with English as a second Language, this book can be read up to age 11/12—all depends on the level of the child)

The Killer Cat spreads mayhem amongst the paint pots!

“Nonchalant Tuffy the cat makes his triumphant third outing in this latest tale by Anne Fine. Tuffy is fast becoming an archetype in children’s literature.”===achuka Reviews

“Well, stretch my stripes! Tuffy’s back, with more problems… This, the third of the Killer Cat sagas, is enough to make a dog laugh.” –Carousel

The author of the owl and the pussycat was of course Edward Lear ==1812 – 1888 ==and the first publication date of the owl and the pussycat was 1871. Wonderful illustrated graphics have also been set to the words of the owl and the pussycat poem helping to fire the imagination of a child! The burning question remains, however, what exactly is the runcible spoon referred to in the words of the owl and the pussycat poem? The probable definition of this term is that a runcible spoon is a small fork with three prongs, one having a sharp edge, and curved like a spoon. This spoon is used to eat pickles, etc.

 Edward Lear
Read here on WIKIPEDIA more about Edward Lear.
The Owl and the Pussycat poem

The Owl and the Pussycat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
“O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are, you are, you are,
What a beautiful Pussy you are.”
Pussy said to the Owl “You elegant fowl,
How charmingly sweet you sing.
O let us be married, too long we have tarried;
But what shall we do for a ring?”
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-tree grows,
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose, his nose, his nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.
“Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling your ring?”
Said the Piggy, “I will”
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon.
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand.
They danced by the light of the moon, the moon, the moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.

Cat in the window

What do you see?
Cloud, wind, birds,
a bird in a tree.
The daffodils shivering
in the February breeze,
A puddle in the road
beginning to freeze.

Snow on the wind
Dusk in a cloud.
Leaves in a frenzy,
The bird’s head cowed.
Winter – though the sun shines.
Blizzard, and the north wind’s whine.

~~~Brian Morse

Cat Kisses

Sandpaper kisses
on a cheek or a chin -
that is the way
for a day to begin!

Sandpaper kisses -
a cuddle, a purr
I have an alarm clock
that’s covered with fur.

—Bobbi Katz

Cat Warmth

All afternoon,
My cat sleeps,
On the end of my bed.

When I creep my toes
Down between the cold sheets,
I find a patch of cat-warmth
That he’s left behind;
An invisible gift.

—John Cunliffe
The last 2 poems from: Read Me2: A Poem For Everyday Of The Year.

On THIS LINK you can read about the book.. “Two Frogs”…

Ahw….Wow! just look at this cute kitty!! which Streathambrixtonchess has on their blog!

http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com/2008/06/cat-chess.html
 

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