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This book, Smoky: The Little Kitten Who Didn’t Want To, is one of the first offerings from Plumfield Press. It is a reprint of a public domain book, lovingly reproduced with upgraded color pictures and glossy white paper. It is one of a long line of picture books featuring baby animals, in this case a small black kitten. Smoky can be classified as a picture book rather than an early reader, though it could be used to teach reading. However, I see it more as a nice book to read to a little one curled up in one’s lap.
Smoky is one of three kittens in the litter but is the only one who is all-black like his father. He didn’t want to learn to climb a tree when his mother was trying to teach them, like his siblings, so the mother cat had to force him to learn. Then he didn’t want to eat, so, frustrated but wise, she didn’t make Smoky eat but let him do whatever he wanted, all day, She was trying to teach him a lesson, I am sure, since kittens are very hungry little creatures! Smoky did get very hungry by the end of the day, which turned out to cure his obstinacy.
I can foresee lots of fun when a parent reads this book to a child! The many questions that could be asked and the different voices used for different animals by the parent-reader should produce giggles from the child to whom one is reading. I predict that this book will be asked for every day from little children. A suggestion – my father read to me this way and I read to my kids and grandchildren the same way: when the child gets to know the book by heart, make deliberate mistakes here and there and watch the fun that child will have ‘correcting’ you! The illustrations are whimsical and cute and add to the delight of the book.