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Cats’ Night Out | May 2, 2012

by Caroline Stutson illustrated by Jon Klassen (Simon & Schuster, May 2011)

I recommend Caroline Stutson and Jon Klassen’s Cats’ Night Out if you are either learning to count or would like to familiarize yourself with the dance forms of various cultures—as interpreted by cats. Beginning with two somber, dignified kitties dancing a samba against a romantic cityscape, the dancers multiply page by page until twenty cats form a conga on a clothing line stretched between buildings. Sadly, the fun ends here, when irate neighbors shoo the light-footed cats away. Klassen’s two-page spread of twenty crestfallen kitties staring back at the offending humans is my favorite in the book. But in true, passive-aggressive kitty fashion, the cats slip back into the alleys…only to re-emerge the next night to waltz by a neon light.

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