The Cat in the Hat What?

Some time ago the folks at Child_Lit got into a lengthy discussion on The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss. I have vague recollections of reading Bartholomew and the Oobleck or something similar when I was a kid, but I don't remember being a big fan. The Cat in the Hat was probably my favorite book as an adult.

Not any longer.

As some Child_Lit people pointed out, this is a book about a stranger invading a home while the mom is away and forcing kids to do things they don't want to do and shouldn't do. How creepy is that? If the cat had been a human--a human male, since the cat does appear to be a tom--this could have been an episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.

Of course, everyone was blaming the mom for abandoning her young. The mom always is to blame. Where was the stinking dad? Huh?

More to come on this subject.

I'm Almost Ready to Give Up

Kids Lit, a blog I read regularly, reports on three new kidlit blogs I was unaware of. cynsations, Muller in the Middle, and The YA Novel and Me. As I've said before, when I started blogging I couldn't find much in the way of kidlit blogs. Now they're multiplying like rabbits. I can't possibly keep up with all the reading.

I think I'm just going to add Muller in the Middle to my favorites list. It's a blog by a middle school librarian and all he does is short book reviews. That might actually help me keep up on what's going on in the world. For instance, he has a short review of The Supernaturalists by Eoin Colfer. I've seen that title floating about a bit but hadn't actually connected with it. Yes, yes. Muller in the Middle could be good for me.

I'm passing on The YA Novel and Me because Kids Lit describes it as "a brilliant look into the mind of an author." I already know as much about the minds of authors as I can stand.