Widget: A Picture Book - Softcover

McFarland, Lyn Rossiter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0374483868 ISBN 13: 9780374483869

Publisher: Square Fish, 2006

Synopsis

A stray dog pretends he's a cat in order to get a home

When Widget, a little stray dog, stumbles through a flap door into the home of Mrs. Diggs, he sees six cats, six bowls of food, and six warm beds. There's clearly only one thing to do. Confronted by the cats' intense scrutiny, Widget meows, purrs, plays with a toy mouse, and uses the litter box. Having eventually convinced his new family of his felinity, Widget is soon living so happily he sometimes forgets his true nature. But when Mrs. Diggs takes a fall and doesn't get up, it's up to Widget to save the day with a particularly canine solution.

A very simple text and droll pictures make Widget a book to read again and again.

About this title

About the Author:

Lyn Rossiter McFarland and Jim McFarland have collaborated on several children's books, including Widget & the Puppy and Mouse Went Out to Get a Snack. They live in Livingston, New York.

From Publishers Weekly:

In this when-in-Rome story, a stray dog alters his canine ways to appease half-a-dozen grouchy cats. Widget, a scruffy Westie, wanders into a farmhouse where he finds "six cats, six warm beds, and six bowls of hot food." The well-fed cats glare at him. "I wish you could stay," says the grandmotherly caretaker, Mrs. Diggs. "But I'm afraid the girls just can't stand dogs." Widget utters a hopeful "Meow?" Thereafter, he adopts feline ways, until the inevitable emergency ("Mrs. Diggs... fell down. She didn't move") compels him to bark and save the day. The McFarlands, who imagined a teddy bear mimicking a bird in The Pirate's Parrot, once again depict an adaptable outsider. Widget's name aptly suggests an unspecific, versatile object. In Jim McFarland's pen-and-ink and watercolor wash illustrations, the ingratiating dog appears the same size as his adoptive sisters, with pointed ears and a scruffy, upraised tail; he even casts a cat-shaped shadow. This story line offers no surprises, but it gives a fond account of cross-species conciliation, and, at their best, the pictures of the hero attempting to adapt to his housemates' behavior hint at the sly wit of James Stevenson's artwork. Ages 3-6.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Square Fish
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0374483868
• ISBN 13: 9780374483869
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: McFarland Jim