Cat Ears on Elizabeth by Rachel Vail

Abstract

Reviewed by: Cat Ears on Elizabeth by Rachel Vail Deborah Stevenson, Editor Vail, Rachel Cat Ears on Elizabeth; illus. by Paige Keiser. Feiwel, 2020 [128p] (A Is for Elizabeth) Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-250-16220-5 $13.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-250-16221-2 $9.44 Reviewed from galleys R* Gr. 1-3 Second grade goes sour for Elizabeth when some girls start wearing cat-ears headbands, and Elizabeth yearns to share the sartorial limelight. She doesn’t like headbands (they “squish my brains out”) and she always loses them, but that was two weeks ago, and she’s ready to headband up now. Fortunately her doting grandparents help out with a gift of a headband; unfortunately it turns out the ears (and horns) she’s sporting belong to a cow, not a cat. Vail brings her usual keen powers of observation about kid dynamics to this entry in the A Is for Elizabeth early reader series, with Elizabeth’s yearning for prominence and inclusion wittily and sympathetically depicted. One to two-page chapters are easily accessible to readers just moving beyond restricted vocabulary, and there’s a Matthew Cordell flavor to the lively monochromatic illustrations. It’s an engaging outing that may also lead readers to Sternberg’s similarly sympathetic Like Pickle Juice on a Cookie (BCCB 3/11). [End Page 410] Copyright © 2020 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois