If I Were a Cat I Would Sit in a Tree

Joan McGrath is a Toronto Board of Education library consultant.

If I Were a Cat I Would Sit in a Tree is a counting book with a decided difference — that of the reader’s involvement with the progression of numbers and the intensity of action. As the “cat count” rises from one to twelve, so do the activity and the noise level. The cats are gorgeous and varied, from lions to pumas, from Siamese to alley cats. As the musing child dwells on the infinite possibilities of being a cat sitting in regal repose high in a tree, of being two cats companionably fishing, four living in a cave, seven on an island, a rampageous eleven prowling an alley, right up to a riotous twelve, the vivid plates grow wilder and more restlessly colourful. Then, when the excitement has reached its peak, the dreamer goes back to being just one cat, curled up in happy solitude before an open fireplace. Charming, decorative, and a most attractive read-aloud.