Review by Booklist Review
K-Gr. 3. In the center of Africa, a cat contemplates the world, wondering where it ends. To find out, he sets off on a journey, encountering various other animals--a camel, a horse, a tiger, and a whale--along the way. Each one gives the cat a ride to the end of the world it knows. Finally, an eagle carries the cat into the sky to show it what none of the others could: a world without end. A final double-page spread shows the cat and the eagle soaring across the sun above a rainbow-bordered earth populated with peacefully coexisting beasts. The heavily stylized illustrations, executed in ink, with darkly outlined shapes filled in with geometric patterns, evoke the gourd art of the Kotoko people of Chad. The text is presented in both English and Chadian Arabic calligraphy, which becomes part of the overall design. A lovely, though message-laden, book, with multigenerational appeal. --Michael Cart Copyright 2003 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 3-Similar in mood and style to Rumford's Traveling Man (Houghton, 2001), this creative offering is geared to a younger audience. Calabash Cat sets out to discover where the world ends. Each time he thinks that he has found his destination, another animal happens along and takes him farther. Riding a camel, a horse, a tiger, and then a whale, he passes through a desert, grasslands, a jungle, and an ocean. Finally, while perched on an eagle's back, he discovers a world without end. Filled with repetition, the enchanting narrative reads like a folktale. The engaging illustrations are deceptively simple. The animals, drawn with heavy black lines and intricate geometric shapes, are made to look like designs burned into a calabash, an art form that is practiced in Chad. A thick line runs through the spreads like a path, changing color with each of the habitats, and all of the hues are brought together at the end to make a rainbow, a striking effect. Even the type setting helps tell the story. Whenever the cat thinks his journey is over, the text is right justified, making a visual stop, and when he continues on, it is centered. A translation in Arabic script appears with each illustration, and an author's note explains the inspiration for this tale. A wonderful choice for reading aloud, offering much fodder for thought and discussion.-Donna Cardon, Provo City Library, UT (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
(Preschool, Primary) In this original tale illustrated with austere elegance, Calabash Cat ""set off down the road to see where the world ended."" When he comes to the end of the road and the beginning of the desert, he wonders if he has reached his goal. A camel happens by and shows him that the world continues across the desert but (according to the camel) ends at the edge of the grasslands. Next a horse, who is ""quite surprised at how small-minded the camel had been,"" gives Calabash Cat a ride through the grasslands, stopping at the jungle's edge: ""Here, my friend, is where the world ends."" First a tiger and then a whale help the cat along his way, each convinced that their limited terrain is the entire world. An eagle finally provides the wide-eyed cat with a complete picture of a ""world without end."" Rumford sets the animals against clean parchment-yellow pages, outlining them in black and using folk-art patterns from Chad to decorate the cat and his companions. A thick horizontal line flows from page to page, changing color for each habitat as the cat finishes one part of his journey and begins the next. Arabic text parallels the English, adding greatly to the story's message that different parts of the world tend to see things from their own unique perspectives, but that the only way to see clearly is to rise above it all. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Setting off down a road to find the world's end, a cat not only discovers that it's not what he supposes, but not what anyone he meets--with one final exception--supposes, either. Inspired by a burn-decorated animal carving acquired in Chad, Rumford illustrates this simply related original tale, told both in English and in a Chadian dialect written in Arabic script, with strong-lined ink drawings done in the same animistic style. Carried by a camel, a horse, a tiger, and a whale, each of whom wrongly assures him that he's reached his goal, the cat crosses desert and grassland, jungle and ocean, before at last encountering an eagle to fly him home across a "world without end." On the last spread, the road, previously represented by a sinuous line in the background, combines its changing hues into an arching rainbow, bringing the cat back home with a dramatic burst of color. The author of Traveling Man (2001) and other tales, in which the journey is more meaningful than the destination, will gain a host of younger fans with this feline odyssey. (Picture book. 6-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
