What would happen if we could see the world through someone
else’s eyes. This is the question that Brendan Wenzel explores in the picture
book They All Saw a Cat from
Chronicle Books. What would happen if we understood that everyone and
everything in the world has a unique perspective?
The cat in They All
Saw a Cat walks through the world just being himself with whiskers, and
ears, and paws. He comes across a child,
who sees him as an affectionate pet, a dog who sees him as enemy, a mouse who
sees him as predator, a bee who sees him as a mosaic built by compound eyes. He
comes across a fox, a fish, a bird, a flea, a snake, a skunk, a worm, and a
bat. They all see a cat, but they all see him from their own unique
perspective. Finally, the cat comes to water and sees himself and his
self-image is as unique as the rest.
Watch the trailer from the publisher:
I found this book at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. I
loved this book because it addresses the issue of identity that we all come
across in our everyday lives. It encourages a curiosity about viewpoint and frame of reference for
an audience that is just beginning to be aware of not only themselves but of
how other people view them. It entreats them to engage their imaginations to envision perspectives not their own.
The illustrations show a range of styles. A bird’s eye view.
A fish looking at a refracted image through a water bowl. A worm’s view from
underground. A view from the tiny world of a flea. The styles and images are as
varied as the perspectives. In one image, the cat is seen as a collage of all
of the viewpoints in the book.
This book contains a valuable message about our viewpoints
and how our viewpoints influence our attitudes about our subject, even when that
subject is ourselves. Would it be a better world if we could catch a glimpse of another perspective? I hope so.
My second graders had a hard time understanding that each animal was seeing the same cat. It took some quality questioning to get them to grasp the idea of different points of view. The mouse and the fish clinched it for them.
This book would be a phenomenal mentor text for teachers to teach point of view.
My second graders had a hard time understanding that each animal was seeing the same cat. It took some quality questioning to get them to grasp the idea of different points of view. The mouse and the fish clinched it for them.
This book would be a phenomenal mentor text for teachers to teach point of view.
See you next Wednesday!
