The Cat and the Cuckoo

Children's Literature

In these twenty-eight poems of domestic and wild animals, Hughes gives us new perspectives on these creatures. While many of the animals are familiar to American children—such as the cat and dog, squirrel, crow and donkey—there are some others that are less familiar such as the hedgehog, shrew and The Red Admiral butterfly. As for me, I will never look at a lowly worm in the same way. Each poem just begs to be read aloud and has a fine cadence. The alliteration in "Peacock" is marvelous. "A perfect Peacock on the lawn/ Pranced proudly through his paces./ Pecked at old pancakes, flared his fan/ Like a hand of neon aces." The illustrations are in black, white and gray tones that complement but never overwhelm the poems. McDonnell selected one image from each poem and focused on that. The small sized book fits easily into one's hand. The poems were originally published in 1987 and the McDonnell illustrations were added to the British edition in 2002. This is the first American edition in 2003. 2002, Roaring Brook Press,
— Sharon Salluzzo

School Library Journal

Gr 3-6-Stylized ink drawings accompany a collection of poems first published in Britain in 1987. As in Moon Whales and Other Moon Poems (Viking, 1976; o.p.), illustrated by Leonard Baskin, Hughes's often stark images are paired with black-and-white drawings. Unlike Baskin's art, though, McDonnell's lighthearted portraits do not seem in harmony with the images that Hughes's words paint. The poet's animals are most true to their animal nature-his Crow "-lifts a claw-/A crucifix/Of burnt matchsticks"; his Cuckoo "-leaves her [the Linnet] to weep with a worm in her hand." Words, if not pictures, keep these creatures strong and wild.-Kathleen Whalin, York Public Library, ME Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Quirky, clever, mysterious, and lyrical poems about 28 wild and domestic farm animals comprise this collection, originally published (by Sunstone Press, with different illustrations) in England in 1997. A lonely ram bleats at the moon, a hedgehog hatches fleas. A dog sleeps: "He hogs the fire, he bakes his head / As if it were a loaf of bread. / He's just a sack of snoring dog. / You can lug him like a log. / You can roll him with your foot. / He'll stay snoring where he's put. / Take him out for exercise / He'll roll in cowclap up to his eyes." The pigeons are more elegant: "Up on the roof the Fantail Pigeons dream / Of dollops of curled cream. / At every morning window their soft voices / Comfort all the bedrooms with caresses." Hughes's slightly mismatched rhyme and meter lend an awkward charm to his subjects. McDonnell's (Giddy Up! Let's Ride, 2002, etc.) whimsical and folksy duotone paintings portray each animal in a countryside setting, sometimes with a human child or two observing; combined with the small-cut size of the volume, they give a comforting feel to these poems that sometimes veer wonderfully into dark animal thoughts. Similar in intrigue to the animal poems of Richard Michelson or Douglas Florian, similar in insight to the "small" poems of Valerie Worth, Hughes's poems are rich and musical, and will appeal to young readers. The few Briticisms may be as foreign to some American readers as the setting-yet neither detracts, as each poem encourages readers to observe something in a new way. (Poetry. 7-11)