Kat Patrick (text), Lauren Marriott (illus), I Am Doodle Cat, Scribe Publications/Penguin, 28 March 2016, 32pp., $19.99 (hbk), ISBN: 9781925321258
This picture book won the Scholastic New Zealand Award for Best Designed Children’s Book. Each page shows us what Doodle Cat loves: dancing, noise, the ocean, farts, ice cream, friends, trees, lentils, baths and more. Most of all he loves difference and himself.
Marriott’s illustrations show a simple red cat-shape frolicking through clear white pages, and Patrick tells us in the middle and end of the book just why Doodle Cat loves what he loves. The reader is invited to tell us what he/she loves.
Here is a clever and arresting book without overt didacticism, but with much to talk about.
Reviewed by Stella Lees
- Read an interview with Kat Patrick
- Read John Mackenzie’s review of the New Zealand edition
