A review by xterminal
Chicken and Cat Clean Up by Sara Varon
4.0
Sara Varon, Chicken and Cat Clean Up (Scholastic, 2009)
Every time I bring this book to mind again (I read it a week and a half ago and have been letting it rattle around in my head ever since), I can't get past comparing it to the movie Sunshine Cleaning, which couches so many of the same themes in a decidedly more adult (and more destructive) milieu. Because of this, you probably already have a handle on the (wordless) story: chicken and cat go into the cleaning business together, but cat is clumsy and keeps messing things up, so their employer sends him outside (so as not to cause any more damage), and he ends up finding something he's good at doing while pondering his future in the cleaning business. Very nicely done, very cute, and I wish I'd jotted down on the spreadsheet that it was a sequel so I could've read the first book first. No matter, though; because it's wordless, could be a hit with just about any age, from pre-readers who will be enchanted by Varon's color schemes to those who find themselves too old for kids' books but are just starting to discover graphic novels and manga. *** 1/2
Every time I bring this book to mind again (I read it a week and a half ago and have been letting it rattle around in my head ever since), I can't get past comparing it to the movie Sunshine Cleaning, which couches so many of the same themes in a decidedly more adult (and more destructive) milieu. Because of this, you probably already have a handle on the (wordless) story: chicken and cat go into the cleaning business together, but cat is clumsy and keeps messing things up, so their employer sends him outside (so as not to cause any more damage), and he ends up finding something he's good at doing while pondering his future in the cleaning business. Very nicely done, very cute, and I wish I'd jotted down on the spreadsheet that it was a sequel so I could've read the first book first. No matter, though; because it's wordless, could be a hit with just about any age, from pre-readers who will be enchanted by Varon's color schemes to those who find themselves too old for kids' books but are just starting to discover graphic novels and manga. *** 1/2