Picture Book Monday: If You Give a Cat a Cupcake, and The Amazing Adventures of Bumblebee Boy

[osprey_archer]

Given how much I hate If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, I expected to loathe Laura Numeroff's follow-up book If You Give a Cat a Cupcake, but actually the cat is waaaaaay less annoying than the mouse. The mouse whines all the time; the cat just keeps coming up with cool ideas. Let's go to the beach and make sandcastles! Let's go to the science museum and see the dinosaurs! Let's ride the carousel! The reader gets to ride the carousel horse with the purple mane. The reader gets to be involved with the fun rather than catering to the animal's every irritating whim, as in If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

Clearly the cat should eat the mouse. Problem solved!

My favorite book today, however, was The Amazing Adventures of Bumblebee Boy, by David Soman and Jacky Davis, which is a companion piece to the Ladybug Girl series and just as adorable. (Clearly Bumblebee Boy and Ladybug Girl are going to meet someday and probably grow up and get married and have Dragonfly Twins. Calling it now.)

Anyway, young Sam wants to play the adventures of Bumblebee Boy on his own, but his little brother Owen just won't leave him alone. Owen gets himself a cape! and a mask! ("That's a hat," says Sam, unimpressed), so he can superhero right alongside Sam. Of course eventually Sam ends up giving in and letting him be parting of the game.

What I really liked about this book, though, is the variety and intensity of Sam's imaginative games. Give him the family cat, and it instantly transforms into a saber-toothed tiger which has broken free of its chain and is intent on eating the entire circus audience!!!!! UNLESS BUMBLEBEE BOY CAN SAVE THE DAY!

Comments

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

Awww! I hope Bumblebee Boy and Ladybug Girl live right down the street from one another, so they can meet and have adorable insectoid adventures.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

A little Amazon sleuthing tells me that they are going to meet at some point in the future. We'll just have to see if the book falls into my hands.

Oddly enough, however, none of their adventures ever seem to be insect-themed. I guess Spiderman doesn't spend a lot of time battling spiders either, but at least he got bitten by a spider at the start of it all.