Author: Brendan Wenzel
Illustrator: Brendan Wenzel
Publisher and year: Chronicle Books (August 30, 2016)
Number of pages: 44 pages
Genre: Picture Book
Analysis:
They All Saw a Cat is about how different a cat can be in different animals’ eyes. The author who is also the illustrator shows us how a child, a dog, a fox, a fish, a mouse, a bee, a bird, a flea, a snake, a skunk, a worm and a bat sees a cat with colorful illustrations. It is a book that can animatedly teach children about science and perception.
On the cover, we see a brown cat who is facing the right with her four legs stretched away from each other which implies she is walking and moving. Throughout the story, the cat is always on and facing the right with a human or another kind of animal on its left. The image of the cat usually takes a whole page since it is the main character of the story.
The story starts with “The cat walked through the world, with its whiskers, ears, and paws …” Then a child saw this cat and we only see this child’s feet, legs, and blue shorts while he seems to be gently touching the cat. We can see the cat’s face which is facing us and it seems to be smiling. Then a dark brown dog saw the cat and the cat looks a lot skinnier. Its enlarged eyes and erected ears shows it is terrified of the dog. When a fox saw the cat, the cat is running afield with a shadow following it. The cat is looking back at the fox. The tilted grass and trees also suggests the two animals’ movement. Then we see a small fish looking at the cat. We couldn’t see the fishbowl but the cat looks huge and blurry since the fish must be looking at the cat in water. The size of the cat suggests its power over the fish. When a mouse saw the cat, the color suddenly changes from mild and gentle to bright red. The mouse is tiny comparing to the cat and the cat seems furious with its eyes, teeth, whiskers and paws standing out in the picture. Comparing with the bird, the cat seems smaller and much lower on the ground while the bird is high in the sky. With the bee, flea, snake, worm and bat, we can no longer see the cat’s face since these animals cannot see the cat’s face themselves. With the skunk, the colors are mostly black and white. The illustrator also uses collage to show how different a cat can be in different animals’ eyes. Oil, pastels, watercolor and pencils are all used in this thought-provoking picture book.
