Harry the Wonder Cat is a classic children’s book that would be exciting to read and understand by virtually everyone, both young and old alike. The author, Denise Brixey did a great job in trying to be as graphic as possible. The author attached pictures to each character at the very beginning of the book, which is vital considering that children like identifying with images and illustrations thus by giving them an idea on how each character looks like, it will increase their interest in reading the book or following up on the story as the case may be. In addition to the pictures, the author equally ensured that each scene and activity is well detailed which is also very good because providing minute details will help to keep them focused.
The author’s use of animal characters with the ability to behave like humans will also fascinate children because they are imaginative in nature and reading a book about animals with the ability to speak, communicate and display emotions that are ordinarily exclusive to humans will intrigue children. It would not be out of place to see children interacting verbally with their toys or pets at home, they actually enjoy doing so and now Harry the Wonder Cat brings that fantasy alive by combining animals that interact with one another verbally on one hand as well as humans on the other.
However, one drawback about the book is in the plot, a book that is meant for children ideally ought not to have scenes that are related to violence. Also, for a book that is believed to be for children, using Agatha Christie’s works as reference books is not ideal, rather, writers that are popular in children’s book niche would have been perfect.
Another bull’s eye Harry the Wonder Cat hit is ironically in the plot as well, by including characters like Santa Claus, season like the Christmas and activities such as the singing of carols etc is nice because children generally love it all.
The structure of the book including the tense, spellings, grammar etc were all outstanding and the plot flowed progressively as well as the timeline. However, what could be termed as a con to an extent is the volume of the book. Harry the Wonder Cat is actually too lengthy for a book that was written with children in mind. Children are easily distracted and are not known to maintain focus for too long, the author probably should have divided the book into different parts for easy comprehension and retention of focus.
The title of the book, Harry the Wonder Cat is perfect for a children’s book. It will elicit curiosity in children at first glance. It sounds like something that would appeal to their imaginative minds and they would want to find out how wonderful Harry truly is by reading the book.
The author made use of big words in some places during the course of the book, now this could be an advantage or a disadvantage depending on the angle one views it from; if the book is going to be read to children by their teachers or adults at home, they could easily ask for meanings on some of those big worlds they may not understand but if they are to read the book on their own, encountering such big words could be a distraction and turn off to them.
On a general perspective, Harry the Wonder Cat would make a great impression all things being equal.
