Comet's Nine Lives
 Jan Brett
 (Reviewed by The Editor - Rebecca Brown)
 1996 G.P.Putnam's Sons NY USA
  ISBN: 0399229310


Like all cats, Comet knows he's been born with nine lives. He hasn't thought much about it until he loses life number one in a flower garden on Nantucket Island & then the dangers seem to dog his pawsteps everywhere!

Jan Brett's illustrations are incredible & her renditions of shells & sea; cats & dogs; flowers & boats are awesome.

Her story of Comet's adventures in the little island town are pretty hilarious, scary & wild too!

Jan Brett has caught the brightness of seaside life & that incurable curiosity that youngsters have.

Comet's Nine Lives is a pure work of art, complete with Afghan hound dressed up for a show in front of every kind of dog you can think of & there's Comet plumb in the middle - oops there goes a life!

Some of his scrapes are wonderful & some are simply the scrapes a lost child would get into.

All in all though, when Comet's eighth life's angel flutters heavenward, you realize Comet's just about grown up.

Not only is Comet's Nine Lives a teaching book about counting, learning & anticipation, it is also all about the sea, the seashore & the life of a little town.

Comet's Nine Lives is a superb gift for anyone who is learning to count, learning to love the seaside, learning to love cats & dogs.

More from Jan Brett: The Mitten; Trouble with Trolls; Christmas Trolls; The Wild Christmas Reindeer; Armadillo Rodeo; The Owl and the Pussycat & Berlioz the Bear
(02/13/00)

Rebecca