Book Review: Cats’ Night Out
Age Range: 3+
Author: Caroline Stutson
Illustrator: Jon Klassen
A Paula Wiseman Book
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
New York
2010
ISBN: 978-1-4169-4005-0
It’s night in the city, and the cats are coming out two by two to dance the night away. Kids will hear about a slew of dance styles, and counting by twos in this absolutely charming book!
My kindergartener brought this book home as his weekly pick from his school library, and I think he hit the jackpot! I truly loved this book from the first time I read it to him. The counting nature was ok, but what I really liked was that the cats were dancing in all different styles (jazz, tap, rumba, polka, and so on). The rhyming nature makes it a fun read, and I had a fantastic time seeing what the cats were doing on each page and talking to my kids about the different dances. Admittedly, only after finishing the book and reading the front flap did I realize this is also a count by twos book – which made the counting nature much cooler and unique as well. And not only that – but apparently there is the corresponding number to the number of cats hidden on each page.
So to summarize, this is a super cute count by twos book that introduces kids to various dance steps AND has a search and find for a number on every page. I seriously loved it!
The cats are adorable (even for someone who strongly prefers dogs…) and dressed in outfits appropriate for each dance style. I did find some of the pages tough to read as there was a dark font on a dark background (apparently I’m getting old), but it doesn’t stop me from wanting to read this one over and over again.