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Summary
Summary
Sometimes funny, sometimes touching, this adoption story, Won Ton, told entirely in haiku, is unforgettable.
Nice place they got here.
Bed. Bowl. Blankie. Just like home!
Or so I've been told.
Visiting hours!
Yawn. I pretend not to care.
Yet -- I sneak a peek.
So begins this beguiling tale of a wary shelter cat and the boy who takes him home.
Author Notes
Lee Wardlaw has published more than two dozen award-winning books for young readers, including 101 Ways to Bug Your Parents and 101 Ways to Bug Your Teacher. She lives in Santa Barbara, CA, with her family.
Eugene Yelchin has illustrated Who Ate All the Cookie Dough? by Karen Beaumont and The Cobbler's Holiday or Why Ants Don't Wear Shoes by Musharraf Ali Farooqi. With his wife, Mary Kuryla, he cowrote Heart of a Snowman and Ghost Files: The Haunting Truth which he also illustrated. He lives in Topanga, California.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Wardlaw (101 Ways to Bug Your Parents) has a fine understanding of the feline mind, and each 17-syllable poem packs a big impact-especially in the first section, which imagines the emotional life of a cat in a shelter. "Visiting hours!/ Yawn. I pretend not to care./ Yet-I sneak a peek." Warily, Won Ton considers the boy who is his new owner-"Won Ton? How can I/ be soup? Some day, I'll tell you/ my real name. Maybe." In the final pages, boy and cat grow to trust each other, and Won Ton reveals his real name: "Boy, it's time you knew:/ My name is Haiku." Yelchin's (Seven Hungry Babies) sleek cat is all eyes and sharp angles. The Japanese haiku theme (technically, Wardlaw explains in a note, the poems are senryu, focusing on "the foibles of human nature") is carried through with elements and backgrounds lifted from old woodblock prints. The final page, a delicate painting of the boy nuzzling the cat, is a fitting reward for the boy's patience and Won Ton's resilience. A surprisingly powerful story in verse. Ages 4-8. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
In a series of haiku, an angular gray cat with blue eyes narrates the story of his adoption from a shelter and his new life. Technically, as the author's note at the beginning explains, these are "senryu," following the same pattern as haiku but, rather than focusing on nature, focusing on "the foibles" of human (or, in this case, cat) nature. The cat's fear, pride, and gradual trust with all its tentativeness come across clearly: at the shelter, "Latch squeaks. Door swings wide. / Free! Free at last! Yet, one claw / snags, clings to what's known." Yelchin's graphite and gouache pictures match the poems' sensitivity as well as their humor, with the cat's wariness giving way over time to an enjoyment of his new environment. Illustrations show the cat napping happily on his boy's socks, stretching luxuriously as he scratches the back of a chair, and, toward the end, draped across the boy's tummy, asleep ("Your tummy, soft as / warm dough. I knead and knead, then / bake it with a nap"). The appealing cover will help sell this funny and touching celebration of the joys of adopting a shelter cat. susan dove lempke (c) Copyright 2011. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Although the subtitle says haiku, as Wardlaw explains in her opening author's note, the poems that make up this picture-book celebration of the child-pet bond are actually written in similarly structured senryu, a form that focuses on personality and behavior instead of on the natural world, as haiku does. Here the central personality belongs to a feisty shelter cat who has never known cozy domestic life: Nice place they got here. / Bed. Bowl. Blankie. Just like home. / Or so I've been told. Then a boy arrives, scoops the cat from his cage, brings him home, and names him Won Ton ( How can I / be soup? Some day, I'll tell you / my real name. Maybe ). Both the tightly constructed lines and elegant, playful illustrations unerringly imagine a cat's world, including the characteristic feline seesaw between aloof independence and purring, kneading adoration. Like Bob Raczka's Guyku (2010), this title shows that poetry can be fun, free, and immediate, even as it follows traditional structure; The Car Ride, for example, reads, Letmeoutletme / outletmeoutletmeout. / Wait let me back in! Yelchin's expressive graphite-and-gouache artwork nods to the poetic form's roots with echoes of Japanese woodblock prints and creates a lovable, believable character in this wry, heartwarming title that's sure to find wide acceptance in the classroom and beyond.--Engberg, Gillian Copyright 2010 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-4-A cat sits in a shelter. There are other cats around him, yet he is alone. Will anyone choose him? Yes! But adjustments must be made.mostly by his new owners because, after all, he IS a cat. Wardlaw's book (Holt, 2011) strikes just the right notes. Written in clever and evocative haiku, this delightful story follows Won Ton as he settles into his new home and neighborhood. This cat clearly has personality, and James Yaegashi puts a subtle purr in his voice as he brings the cat to life vocally, changing the pacing of his performance to match the mood changes of the text. Listeners will smile in recognition of the vicissitudes of catdom, and come away feeling as if an errant tail has just flicked past their ankles.-Teresa Bateman, Brigadoon Elementary, Federal Way, WA (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
In 33 senryu (Japanese poetry similar to and derived from haiku but focusing on humanor, here, felinefoibles instead of nature), Wardlaw relates the tale of a grey shelter cat. In his cage he thinks, "Gypsy on my left. / Pumpkin, my right. Together, / we are all alone." During visiting hours one day, though he takes pains to appear disinterested, the grey cat hopes the boy who rubs his chin just right will selecthim. He does! And after a scary car ride comes the naming. "Buster? Bubba? SPIKE? / Great Rats! Those don't befit an / Oriental prince." Won Ton might be what the boy calls him, but he has a secret name...he won't tell just anyone. Won Ton survives new food, being catnapped and dressed up and a trip to the backyard. And he finally calls the boy's house home. Wardlaw's terse, traditional verse captures catness from every angle, while Yelchin's graphite and gouache illustrations telegraph cat-itude with every stretch and sinuous slink. Perfect pussycat poetry for anyone who has ever loved a shelter cat.(Picture book/poetry. 4-9)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
