Yesterday I tried to get my son to cross the aisle.
Perhaps you have one in your library?
I mean the aisle that separates the easy readers from the juvenile fiction.
But he went back, back to Dr. Seuss.
Back to The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, which we do not own for some reason.
I told him I would check the book out for him if he would write a review, so he did.
Twenty-one lines of exactly what happened in the book. Here’s a sample:
“Little Cats A, B, and C pop out and work together as a team to clean the bed with the T.V.
Little Cats D, E, F, and G pop out, but they wind up making more snow spots
because they need more help.
Litte Cats H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, and V pop out and try their best,
but they make one BIG spot.”
So I discussed the difference between a synopsis and a summary with him, and asked for a summary of three to four lines. I also told him that reviewers say what
they like and dislike and explain why.
So this is his review:
“There is a spot scene in the book The Cat in the Hat Comes Back.
The spot scene is because of the Cat in the Hat eating cake in a tub.
The cat first cleans the spot alone.
After that, the little cats come to help.
Voom makes the spot go away.
I liked the book.
I liked the rhymes and the voom.
I dislike the spot.”
He always dislikes whatever the problem is in a book,
which I think is one of the reason he is not interested
in moving on from picture books. Books for older readers
are about problems. Even setting aside the grim dystopian
tomes other twelve year olds seem to be reading, any
book above easy level (and many in that category)
tell the story of someone overcoming a problem. If
my boy wrote them, there would be no problem. Which is,
itself, a problem.
Anyway, both of us highly recommend The Cat in the Hat
Comes Back.
-Spectrum Mom
