Book Review: The Little Red Cat Who Ran Away and Learned His ABCs

Old SoLT never thought that what she really needed in her life was an ABCs book, because you know, she’s known her ABCs for a while now. But it turns out that this picture book from Patrick McDonnell (of the Mutts comic strip) is the perfect thing to bring a smile on a rainy day. Yes, even for a grown-up (the recommended age range is 4-8 years).

This little tome is called The Little Red Cat Who Ran Away and Learned His ABCs (the Hard Way). It has no text (unless you count the 2 letters on each page—an upper and lowercase A, B, C, or whatever). That means you get to have a lot of fun making up the story.

Our story starts like this:

Once upon a time, there was a little red cat who liked to go for a run every day, as she was in training for her first half marathon. One day, she was running happily along when suddenly, there was a giant alligator in her path (A is for alligator!). The alligator chased the little red cat, causing her to run faster than ever before, shaving whole seconds off her previous best split time. The alligator chased the cat right past a tree that had an angry brown bear in it (B is for bear!). The angry bear, who really did not care for alligators because of that time one had bitten his great-aunt Maud on the nose, chased them both past a chicken coop (C is for chicken!)…

And you probably get the idea. The next pages bring a dragon, an unexpected egg (E is our favorite page), and fire (from the dragon).

Old SoLT has loved Mutts for years, so seeing more of Patrick McDonnell's work is always a treat. And of course we love that this book gives young children and their parents a chance to make up the details of the story. What fun!

Highly recommended (no matter your age)!

A note on the "Paws Up" system: Miss C gives either one or two paws up. One paw is for a good read; two paws is for a great read. She never gives three or four paws because that would require her to lie on her back...and Miss C does not do that!

The link below is an Amazon Associates link. If you purchase the book through this link, old SoLT and I could get some coin for our kibble account. Thank you!