Welcome back to Smarty Books, a monthly newsletter featuring smart and sweet picture books to inspire young readers. (4 minute read)
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Our book today is Joy by Yasmeen Ismail, illustrated by Jenni Desmond. This book is geared towards younger readers than a typical Smarty Books pick, but it’s enormously fun to read because of all the sound words and engaging illustrations.
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Summary
In Joy, a kitten romps through its home playing with a ball of yarn (and trashing the neat, tidy living room). The mama cat and the pet dog eventually join in the play, but there’s a bit of an accident. The mama cat scoops up the kitten and dusts it off with some comforting words, and then the kitten is off again to play with another toy.
Why Joy is great
Sonic play! Rhyming and sound words pepper this text—it’s so fun to read.
The illustrations are genius; this book is a master class in picture book design. The story begins on the inside title page with the kitten jumping out of bed. By the next page turn, the kitten has already unwound the yarn ball across most of the living room. Time is passing with every page turn, and the mess is growing. We’re also introduced to the kitten’s final plaything a couple of pages ahead of time, but it’s so subtle I didn’t notice it until today (probably tenth or twelfth reading).
From the illustrations, we can make inferences about who else lives in this home even though there are no humans in the story. We can tell who lives here and what kind of people they are from their artwork, rug and clothes drying rack.
A dotted line shows the path of the moving objects in the story—a bouncy ball and the kitten. Readers can trace the path with a finger and imagine how the kitten and ball moved across the page.
Laugh at the total destruction caused by the kitten and be glad it’s not your home!
The message. Everyone falls down, and that’s what mamas are for. We give strong hugs and dust-offs and set the little ones back on their feet. I love the line, “There’s nowhere that I’d rather be than holding you so close to me.”
I wasn’t able to reach Yasmeen Ismail, although she has a lovely website. She wrote the text for Joy, but she’s also an illustrator. Find her on Instagram here.
Illustrator Jenni Desmond is on Instagram here, and this is her website.
Joy was published in 2019 by Candlewick Press.
Hundreds of cats, thousands of cats. . . (IYKYK)
In the absence of an interview, here are two more of my favorite cat books.
Cookie’s Week
By Cindy Ward, illustrated by Tomie dePaola (Puffin, 1997)
This is a short read about a cat named Cookie who gets into a different kind of trouble each day of the week. He just can’t help himself. This book is also filled with messes made by the cat. It’s a very repetitive text that’s great for practicing the days of the week.
Millions of Cats
By Wanda Ga’g (Coward-McCann, 1928)
This is a (much) darker picture book that I read growing up. A lot has changed since the time of the book’s writing in 1928. . . but if you’re an edgy parent or caregiver, you might like this one. It’s about an elderly couple searching for a cat. The man journeys across the land to find the perfect cat, but he inadvertently ends up choosing all of them because they’re all so beautiful. Too late, he realizes it won’t work to keep all of the cats, “hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats” (this refrain is very catchy and will definitely get stuck in your head and be used to fuel parodies for years to come). Check it out to discover what happens to all of the cats.
November Writing News
Memoir-in-verse update: the final revision is complete! The title is Today I Left the House: Diary of a First-Time Mom. I still need to finish the accompanying documents before I can turn it in later this month, but I’m starting to get excited, and I know that it’s the best it’s ever been thanks to many helpful friends.
For Spanish-teaching folk, the Simpli-Guide for Entre las nubes altas is now available. The chapter one content is available at the link above as a sample.
Audio books are available for La vaca Lola and Dale, dale, dale.
One more thing. I’ve started using Goodreads again, and I would love to be friends with you. Click here to friend me on Goodreads.
Happy reading until we meet again!
—Sarah White
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Great post!