David LaRochelle

author & illustrator

This is NOT a Cat

This Is NOT a Cat!

by David LaRochelle
illus­trat­ed by Mike Wohnout­ka
Ster­ling Books, 2016
Ages: Preschool to Grade 2
ISBN: 978–1‑4549–1574‑4

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Wel­come to mouse school, where the first les­son is rec­og­niz­ing DANGER! And that means CAT. Miss Mouse shows her stu­dents pic­tures of objects that are—and are not—a cat. Her les­son is going as planned, until some­thing enters the class­room that makes them all sCAT­ter. But is their unwel­come guest real­ly a cat?

Writ­ten using only the words in the title, This is NOT a Cat! is easy and sat­is­fy­ing for the ear­li­est read­ers to enjoy on their own, and delight­ful­ly fun­ny for read­ers of all ages.

Buy the Book 

Resources

No need to cry, “Rats!,” here are free down­load­able activ­i­ties that you are wel­come to share with your young readers:

bullet  This is NOT a Cat! board game (part 1) and (part 2)

Awards and Recognition

Atlanta Par­ent, Best Books of 2016
Min­neso­ta Book Award final­ist
Iowa Bridge to Read­ing Award

Reviews

“From the author/illustrator team behind Moo! comes anoth­er delight­ful sto­ry in which the pic­tures pro­vide more infor­ma­tion than the text.…The text repeats only a few phras­es but invites kids to empha­size cer­tain words for a live­ly read-aloud. Chil­dren will enjoy look­ing at Wohnoutka’s car­toon illus­tra­tions and dis­cov­er­ing details that tell the rest of the tale. Sto­ry­time providers and par­ents will find this a great way to pro­mote both print aware­ness and nar­ra­tive skills by point­ing out the repeat­ed words and gen­er­at­ing dis­cus­sion with young lis­ten­ers. VERDICT A nec­es­sary pur­chase for most library col­lec­tions serv­ing young chil­dren and fam­i­lies. This one will be a hit both in sto­ry­time and in one-on-one shar­ing.” (School Library Jour­nal)