The Cat, the Crow and the Banyan Tree - Softcover

Penelope Lively

3.18

11 ratings by Goodreads

9780744536331: The Cat, the Crow and the Banyan Tree

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0744536332 ISBN 13: 9780744536331

Publisher: Walker Childrens Paperbacks, 1995

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The cat and the crow live under the huge and mysterious banyan tree. All day long they tell each other stories: the cat's are elegant and entertaining, the crow's fast and furious. One day, they decide to tell extra special stories, each of which involves them climbing inside the banyan tree. The cat takes the crow up and up, through the tall tree and out into the sky, where they board a shooting star and fly to the highest mountain of the moon. Then they climb down again. Now it's the crow's turn. Cat jumps on his back and they're off and rushing - for in crow's story they're being chased by hullaballoos. They dodge the glockenspiel, race through the ghost tunnel, past the snake gang and back, to the cat's great relief, to the bottom of the banyan tree. And. the book ends, in classic style, with tea! Penelope Lively won the Booker Prize in 1987 for her novel "Moon Tiger", having been shortlisted twice previously for "The Road to Lichfield" and "According to Mark". Her children's story "The Ghost of Thomas Kempe" was awarded the Carnegie Medal, and "A Stitch in Time" won the Whitbread Children's Novel Award. Made an OBE in 1989, she is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Terry Milne has also illustrated "Grandma's Hat" and "The Toymaker".

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From Kirkus Reviews:

The author of The Ghost of Thomas Kempe (1973) and other fantasies for children (and also a Booker Prize winner for her adult fiction) adds to her distinguished list a picture book with a delectably sly subtext on narrative style. Cat and Crow tell stories under a banyan tree. Cat's, like Cat herself, are ``elegant and entertaining''; Crow's are ``fast and furious.'' One day each in turn tells a story that takes both right into the tree, a marvelous intertwining of trunks, branches, and peering creatures. In Cat's atmospheric tale--which is virtually without event--they explore the tree's mysterious dark spaces and go on to the mountains of the moon. Crow's--beginning ``We're off!...They're after us!''--is all action; a kaleidoscope of characters zip by while Crow brushes aside Cat's anxious queries (``Where to?'' ``Why?''). Yet the frenzy leaves no trace: Back home, Crow is bored even before the dust settles. The tea party on the last spread doesn't quite tie all this up, but the parody of fictive styles is intriguing, while Milne's imaginative visualization (in lively cross-hatched detail) echoes the witty descriptions and overarching theme: be it sublime or merely fast- paced, story's reach can be broad and deep. There's enough of the Saturday morning cartoon here to grab kids; those prepared to see it will find much more. (Picture book. 4-10) -- Copyright �1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal:

PreSchool-Grade 2-A cat and a crow tell stories all day at their home under the banyan tree. Cat's stories are "elegant and entertaining," while Crow's are "fast and furious." Trouble is, the tales are so mysterious and quirky that they don't make much sense. In Cat's story, she and Crow climb stairs towards the moon. They hitch a ride on a shooting star to land on the highest mountain (the moon's nose). Eyes shut, they travel back to the banyan tree. In Crow's adventure, the two friends are being followed by "'Everyone! Anyone!'" They are chased by the hullabaloos and the glockenspiel, swoosh through a ghost tunnel, and fly past a snake gang. Back under the banyan tree, all of the imaginary creatures join the pair for an English tea party. Milne's illustrations, watercolors in green, black, yellow, and blue with lots of pen-and-ink details, embellish the whimsical text. Style and color choices are similar to Bobette McCarthy's work in Dreaming (Candlewick, 1994). Better fantasies abound. - Jacqueline Elsner, Athens Regional Library, GA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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