Library & Literary Miscellany

Splat the Cat by Rob Scotton (July 01, 2008)

“If I hide from the day, maybe it’ll go away, he thought.”

Splat the Cat has an extreme case of first-day-of-Cat-School nerves. He lays wide awake with his tail wiggling “wildly with worry”. After a sleepless night, he tries to hide from the new day, but his mom rousts him with her “Time to get up.”

Splat tries every trick/excuse/rationale in the book to get his mom to let him stay home, but his mom has an answer for everything. A sample:

“I’m having a bad hair day Mom. Maybe I should go to school tomorrow instead?” said Splat.

His mom combed his hair. “Purr-fect!” she said.

Splat begins to see that opting out is not an option, so he determines to make the best of the whole Cat School thing and to pack reinforcements. Reinforcements, in this case, means that he packs his pet mouse (yes, that’s right, Splat the Cat’s pet mouse) Seymour into his bright yellow lunch box, and off they go.

There are a few more hitches and glitches on their way to school (for example, the gate won’t let go of his fingers and the lamppost gets in his way, don’t you hate it when that happens?). But eventually Splat, his mom, and the smuggled Seymour arrive at school. Mom leaves with a, “You’ll be fine,” but popeyed Splat’s eyes tell us he’s not yet convinced that his classmates won’t eat him alive.

Interestingly, Splat’s the only unclothed cat in the story, perhaps referencing the classic nightmare of standing in front of the class naked with everyone laughing at you. Splat’s fears, however, prove baseless as the class welcomes him warmly. Splat quickly begins absorbing the fundamental competencies of being a cat: Cats are “amazing…cunning, clever, and quick…” and “cats climb trees, drink milk, and chase mice…”

All is going smoothly, too smoothly, until lunchtime. Bedlam erupts when Splat opens his lunchbox and Seymour bursts out. Having recently digested their cat characteristics lesson, the other cats begin to do what cunning, clever, and quick cats do–they give chase.

Splat is momentarily nonplussed, but, fortunately, Mrs. Wimpydimple and Seymour both apply their own wits to get things turned around. By the time Splat’s mom arrives to pick him up at day’s end, he’s flying high again and, the next morning, he finds his tail wiggling wildly again…with excitement.

Splat the Cat joins the ranks of useful books for helping to alleviate the first day of school jitters. The story’s not word heavy, so it makes a fun read aloud that will fit well into back to school storytimes. Through speaking to the first day of school nerves, the story unobtrusively and wittily touches on fundamental fears of childhood and life in general such as fears of the unknown, of not fitting in, and of change. New lessons are learned as age-old modus operandi are altered. The class concludes, “Cats don’t chase mice…”

As for the illustrations, the cumulative effect of the detail work–from the mouse slippers, fish table, and bookshelf full of books such as C is for Cat in Splat’s bedroom to the fish wallpaper in the other rooms in his house to the menu in the window of the Cat Cafe (fish fingers and cream anyone?) to Mrs. Wimpydimple’s chalkboard drawings–is a fancy feast for the eyes.

Colors are capably employed as well, what with Splat’s black fur standing out (and sticking out) amongst the greyness of the other cats. With so much grey on the pages, Splat’s bright yellow lunch box and equally eye catching red school bag also draw the eye to him. But beyond just his black color, it is Splat with his big eyes and expressive, wiggly, constantly-kinked tail who page-after-page draws readers into his emotional highs and lows and adds the most merriment to the tale.

Splat the Cat springs from the mind of Rob Scotton (who is also the creator of another insomniac and equally demonstrative character, Russell the Sheep). To enjoy this tale, you need to be able to buy into the Splat/Seymour strange friendship. For those who do, Splat the Cat may help to create some future ailurophiles, or at the very least, some Splat the Cat lovers as Splat is a most winsome cat. I already found two new fans as I tested this story out on my niece and nephew; re-readings were immediately requested and procured. Splat was a hat…I mean, Split was a hit…that is, Splat was a hit (consider the phonics fun to be had ).

Visit Rob Scotton’s website to find out more about his works (select pages from Splat the Cat are available for viewing). HarperCollins Children’s also has a 13 page PDF available for Splat the Cat that comes complete with activities and downloadables.

Note: Advance review copy provided by Harper Collins Children’s Books.

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Bullyville by Francine Prose (2007)

* spoilers appear in the review

“What’s more important even than college,’ Dr. Bratton continued, ‘are the lifelong friendships that Baileywell students form, relationships that are not only sustaining in every way, but are incredibly helpful as our graduates find their path through a world that gets scarier and more threatening every day”

“And what’s most important…is the kind of young men we are graduating. Men who feel sympathy for the underdog. The little guy. Who can see things from the little guy’s point of view. Our hope is that the Baileywell experience will produce the sort of compassionate, feeling, deeply, human men who will lead us into a brighter and more caring future.”

Dr. Bratton (Dr. Bratwurst to Bulleywell insiders) has high hopes for his students. Unfortunately, his sentiments seem to pertain to some alternate universe as they don’t reflect the reality of school life for Baileywell’s students. Just ask Bart Rangely.

Bart’s eighth-grade year at Hillbrook Middle School in northern New Jersey begins just like his previous school years–school’s the place to go to hang out with friends and to fly miles under the radar, just like he likes it. However, flying under the radar becomes impossible after Bart stays home from school sick on 9/11/2001.

On that day, Bart’s father (who has not been home for six months anyway since he left them to live with another woman) goes to work on the ninety-fifth floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. His mother, who works in the North Tower also, remains home to take care of Bart.

When they receive news of his father’s death, Bart’s whole world turns upside down. Not only does he have to deal with the instant fame created by his “saving” his mother’s life; he’s also coping with the death of a father who deserted them before his death. He’s also received a full scholarship to Baileywell. His mother believe this scholarship to be the good coming out of the bad, but Bart’s not so sure.

Bart’s matriculation into Baileywell Prep (better known as Bulleywell but also known as Bullyville or Bullyreallywell) signifies his transition from “Miracle Boy” of 9/11 to “bully-ee.” Bart is assigned Tyro Bergen as his Big Brother, Big Brother like Big Brother in 1984 that is. Tyro’s watching Bart and thinking about Bart for the sole purpose of thinking up new methods of psychological torture to inflict upon him.

Despite Bart’s misery at Bulleywell, he endures because his mother seems so happy that he has such an “opportunity.” She clings to his Baileywell education as if it proves that 09/11 didn’t completely shatter her, her son, and their view of the world and humanity itself. However, when Tyro’s nastiness reaches a new level, Bart snaps and retaliates.

Repercussions ensue for the both Bart and Tyro, and they end up in community service. From there, they both find that outward appearances can be deceiving, that change can be very difficult indeed, and that one’s past impacts one’s future. Bart’s year at Bullyville changes him indelibly, and, as Dr. Bratton envisioned from the get-go, the Baileywell experience helps turn him into “the sort of compassionate, feeling, deeply, human men who will lead us into a brighter and more caring future.”

While the ending felt too neat and jarringly retrospective to me (it wraps up with Bart as a father looking back on his Bulleywell days), on the whole Bullyville creates an emotionally complicated and seemingly realistic picture of an underdog’s life. Bullyville covers what it’s like to be bullied and suggests possible responses of the bully-ee, but also it depicts a young boy’s coming to terms with loss, change, friendship, and his place in this world.

For other YA read-alikes about bullies and bullying that have equally disturbing pictures of bullies, try Brock Cole’s The Goats or Robert Cormier’s The Chocolate War. And for even more ideas on this topic at all age levels view the recently posted booklist compiled by Tessa Michaelson and posted at website for the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison: Thick-skinned, Thin-skinned, The Skin I’m In: Books about Bullying, Teasing, Relational Aggression and School Violence. Does anyone else have any suggestions on this topic or thoughts on Prose’s novel?

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