I somehow missed today’s Perfect Picture Book when it came out last year, but I found a copy in the library. Because I’ll be listening to the author/illustrator at Picture Book Summit tomorrow, I thought it’s the perfect time to share it with you.
Title: Cat Nap
Written & Illustrated By: Brian Lies
Publisher/Date: Greenwillow Books/2025
Suitable for Ages: 4-8
Themes/Topics: cat, fantasy, art, museum, mouse, chase, curiosity, creativity, artworks, antiquities, journey, imagination
Opening:
Late light lies, warm, over sofa, Kitten, book.
Shadows slip across walls.
Something scritches, waking Kitten.
A mouse?
A MOUSE!
Brief Synopsis: When a mouse awakens a sleeping kitten, the kitten chases it through a museum poster and on through a series of artworks.
Links to Resources:
· Check out the Educator’s Guide;
· Check out the Activity Guide;
· Find a photograph or artwork in your home or classroom. Where do you think a mouse could hide in that photo or artwork? Try to color a picture of the photo or artwork and feature a cat chasing a mouse;
· Visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York or a local art museum. Do you see any artwork that resembles the artwork featured in Cat Nap?
Why I Like this Book:
When I think of cat naps, I think of quick snoozes. And quick is the operative word for Lies’ romp through art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, viewed through the lens of a cat chasing a mouse.
As Cat Nap begins, we meet Kitten, happily snoozing on a sofa in late afternoon sunlight. Something “scritches”, such a fun term that my word processing program warns is not a word. But Lies chose correctly. Tiny mouse paws make tiny sounds, not scratching, but scritching.
Those scritching sounds awaken Kitten. Or do they? Kitten spies the tiny mouse disappearing into a poster for an exhibition at the Met. Is Kitten dreaming? Lies doesn’t answer that question. Instead, he asks, “Does he follow?” I don’t think I’m giving anything away by sharing the answer, “Of course he does.” What cat, or inquisitive young child, wouldn’t follow along!
And where, you ask, does the cat follow the mouse? Through a series of nine artworks, a listing and photos of which appear at the back of the book. The artworks themselves don’t appear in the illustrations. Instead, Lies recreated them, inserting the cat and mouse throughout, using more techniques than I could possibly list here. Lies also includes some nods to classic children’s literature in the text, which will be fun for kids and adults to identify.
I can envision adults and children pouring over Cat Nap again and again, ogling the artwork and wondering, was it a dream or the adventure of a lifetime?
A Note about Craft:
As Lies states in an Afterword,
“It would have been easy to create the illustrations in this book on a computer – to take a photo of an original artwork and edit Kitten in digitally. It was a greater challenge, and a whole lot more fun, to see if I could actually make pieces of art that looked like the originals in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and blend Kitten’s headlong pursuit of the mouse into them.”
Luckily for readers, Lies used techniques he was familiar with and learned those that were new to him. He ends the Afterword with two questions: “If people before us could do it, why not me? Why not you?”
This Perfect Picture Book entry is being added to Susanna Hill’s Perfect Picture Book list. Check out the other great picture books featured there!
