Book: The Adventures of Miss Petitfour by Anne Michaels with illustrations by Emma Block
Source: Borrowed from Publisher/NetGalley for an honest review
Publication: November 3, 2015
Description:
Miss Petitfour enjoys having adventures that are "just the right size - fitting into a single, magical day."
She is an expert at baking and eating fancy iced cakes, and her favorite mode of travel par avion. On windy days, she takes her sixteen cats out for an airing: Minky, Misty, Taffy, Purrsia, Pirate, Mustard, Moutarde, Hemdela, Earring, Grigorovitch, Clasby, Captain Captain, Captain Catkin, Captain Cothespin, Your Shyness and Sizzles.
With the aid of her favorite tea party tablecloth as a makeshift balloon, Miss Petitfour and her charges fly over her village, having many little adventures along the way. Join Miss Petitfour and her equally eccentric felines on five magical outings -- a search for marmalade, to a spring jumble sale, on a quest for "birthday cheddar", the retrieval of a lost rare stamp and as they compete in the village's annual Festooning Festival. A whimsical, beautifully illustrated collection of tales that celebrates language, storytelling and small pleasures, especially the edible kind!
Rating: 5 stars
Review:
There were five stories in this delightful children's book that follows the everyday yet extraordinary adventures of Miss Petitfour and her sixteen cats. Miss Petitfour and her cats get around town by flying. She uses a tablecloth to help her soar through the air but sometimes things don't always work out as plan, the wind does frequently change course.
I also found an educational aspect to this book because the author had an interesting way of introducing words and their meanings.
As fun and whimsical as the stories were I also adore the artwork by Emma Block, it's an absolutely perfect fit to the stories.
Although this is written for children I couldn't help enjoying it. Miss Petitfour has a way of enjoying life including making boring everyday chores fun. These are very imaginative and creative stories that I do hope children will enjoy as much as I did.
First Story:
Miss Petitfour and the Rattling Spoon
This first story introduces the reader to Miss Petitfour and her 16 cats: Minky, Misty, Taffy, Purrsia, Pirate, Mustard, Moutarde, Hemdela, Earring, Grigorovitch, Clasby, Captain Captain, Captain Catkins (Captain's son), Captain Clothespin (Captain's daughter), Your Shyness and Sizzles.
Also introduced were a few of Miss Petitfour's friends who are also the owners of some of the local businesses in town.
In this story, Miss Petitfour was getting ready for tea, when she noticed that the only thing inside the jar of her favorite orange marmalade was a spoon. With the jar empty, Miss Petitfour knew there could be no teatime without her orange marmalade. With plans to head into town to go to the grocery store to pick up a jar, she grabbed a tablecloth. She and her cats soon took flight but unfortunately the wind was heading in the wrong direction.
They would have kept on going if not for Sizzles who used his tail to latch onto the town hall building. Suspended in the blustery air, there was nothing that Miss Petitfour and her cats could do. But good luck had Mrs. Carruthers the owner of the grocery store spotting Miss Petitfour. She quickly went into her store and picked up a jar of marmalade and headed to town hall.
Miss Petitfour now had her jar but in retrieving it, Sizzles had to unwind his tail from the building, which caused them to yet again fly in the wrong direction. As they flew through the air, Sizzles made another daring attempt to stop their flight by latching his tail to the steering wheel of Mr. Coneybeare's car.
Mr. Coneybeare just so happens to be rather fond of Miss Petitfour. However, he's a little too shy to tell her but he was happy that he could help her and her cats get back home safely even if they were still floating in the air.
This adventure ended with a charming tea party that included Mr. Coneybeare.
Second Story:
Miss Petitfour and the Jumble
Thinking it's time for a good spring cleaning, Miss Petitfour decides to clean out her closet. Inside she knows it filled with a large number of things she has no use for. Helping her out is Pleasant Patel, the daughter of the local bakery owner. While Miss Petitfour gets ready to clean, her cats are outside enjoying the day playing games.
Meanwhile, back in town the residents are getting reading for the Great Spring Jumble Sale which is held every five years. Cleaning out her closet caused Miss Petitfour to remember the sale and as her and Pleasant cleaned and sorted, they made a surprising discovery of a tangled ball of wired coat hangers.
Taking the ball outside caught the eye of the cats but a windy breeze took the ball in the air. Miss Petitfour had tied a string to the ball before it flew off and soon, her, Pleasant and the cats were flying through the air. The wind ended up taking them out to the sale but them landing in the middle of it caused utter chaos.
But from all the commotion transformed into a very fun and enjoyable day.
Third Story:
Miss Petitfour and the Penny Black
This story finds Miss Petitfour and her cats trying to stop her treasured runaway stamp the Penny Black. The adventure started because one of her cats, Pirate accidentally got the Penny Black stuck on her paw. Before Miss Petitfour tried to get the stamp back, it got caught on a breeze of air and flew out of the window.
To get back her stamp, Miss Petitfour grab a tablecloth and soon her and her cats took flight to follow her stamp. The wind blew the stamp here and there with Miss Petitfour narrowly catching it. Finally it landed but Miss Petitfour was unable to get it. However, something wonderful happened, it brought out a good number of townspeople who came to help get the stamp down.
Fourth Story:
Miss Petitfour and the Birthday Cheddar
In this story, it's Minky the cat's birthday and Miss Petitfour plans on having a special celebration for her. Minky loves cheese, she even has a calendar that features a different type of cheese for each month. There is only one thing that Minky wants for her birthday and that's a huge wheel of cheddar cheese.
But the groups flight into town to pick up everything for the party takes an abrupt turn as the wind moves them off course. Miss Petitfour and her cats were now heading for the river and were at the point of dropping into the water. It's a lucky thing Mr. Coneybeare was out in his sailboat, cloud watching because it gave Miss Petitfour and her cats a chance to safely land.
That little adventure didn't stop them from celebrating Minky's birthday, after finally heading into town they (along with Mr. Coneybeare)were back at her house enjoying a lovely party.
Fifth Story:
Miss Petitfour and the "Oom"
In this last story, Miss Petitfour and her cats were enjoying a fall day before they flew off for the town's Great Annual Festival of Festooning which is a huge decorating contest. Prior to leaving, she had heard a mysterious sound but it was nothing that she could place.
The festival was full of excitement as everyone including Miss Petitfour's cats were decorating meanwhile Padme Patel (Pleasant's grandmother) walked around inspecting the entries. Some time later, Miss Petitfour heard that sound again. She along with her cats flew off in the direction of the sound. They ended up finding something rather interesting happening at Mr. Coneybeare's confetti factory.
What happened at the factory resulted in something unexpectedly worked out at the festival. I love the way this story closes out with the town slowly quieting down as Miss Petitfour, her cats and Mr. Coneybeare flew through the night.
Artwork: Cats on a Chair by Emma Block
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