The Cat and the Cuckoo (Single Titles) - Hardcover

Ted Hughes was a world-renowned poet, novelist, and essayist. His many works for children include the classic fable, The Iron Giant. He died in 1998. Flora McDonnell's books for children include Splash! and I Love Boats. She lives in London, England.

Publishers Weekly A small-sized volume of verse, The Cat and the Cuckoo (1987) features poems about wild and domestic farm animals by renowned British poet Ted Hughes, illus. by Flora McDonnell. These quirky poems range from a lightly witty view of a sleeping dog: "He's just a sack of snoring dog./ You can lug him like a log"-to the serious metaphysical meditations of a crow: "Hear ye the Preacher:/ Nature to Nature/ Returns each creature." McDonnell's vivacious duotone art depicts each animal with a folksy whimsy. Booklist With physical immediacy, the 28 poems in this children's collection by the late British poet laureate bring readers and listeners close to each animal's sounds and movements. Sometimes the viewpoint is of a child right there watching, as when pigeons "clatter up, and veer, and soar in a ring / It's as if the house suddenly sang something." Sometimes Hughes imagines the animal's experience, not to personify it, but to be it, move like it: "With a rocketing rip / Squirrel will zip / Up a tree-bole." There's feeling, too, in the particulars--the half-domesticated goat with "Lumps of torn hair / Glued here and there." Opposite each poem, McDonnell's black-and-white wash illustrations, with big frontal close-ups of the animal in a farm setting, capture the silliness as well as realism and mystery. First published in England in 1987 and now reissued, this exuberant read-aloud collection will prepare kids for Hughes' unforgettable adult poems about fierce animals and nature.  School Library Journal Stylized ink drawings accompany a collection of poems first published in Britain in 1987. As in Moon Whales and Other Moon Poems (Viking, 1976; o.p.), illustrated by Leonard Baskin, Hughes's often stark images are paired with black-and-white drawings. Unlike Baskin's art, though, McDonnell's lighthearted portraits do not seem in harmony with the images that Hughes's words paint. The poet's animals are most true to their animal nature-his Crow "-lifts a claw-/A crucifix/Of burnt matchsticks"; his Cuckoo "-leaves her [the Linnet] to weep with a worm in her hand." Words, if not pictures, keep these creatures strong and wild.-Kathleen Whalin, York Public Library, M.-- to weep with a worm in her hand." Words, if not pictures, keep these creatures strong and wild.