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Puss in Boots

A review of Fred Marcellino's "Puss," from 1990.....

Puss, a cat--on the verge of becoming dinner for a poor man--takes control of his own situation. He says, "Let me live, and get me a pair of boots, and I'll make your life very easy."

Puss then talks his way into riches. 

He has his impoverished master swim nude in a pond; he tells the King, "Someone snatched my master's clothing during this skinny-dip session!"

The King makes a "loan" of a fabulous tuxedo. Now, the penniless master begins "turning heads."

Puss next wins land for his master; he goes to a powerful ogre and says, "I bet someone as bulky as you could never transform himself into a tiny mouse."

Unthinking, the ogre becomes a mouse--and Puss has a feast. Now the ogre's palace is up for grabs.

The rest is history.....

Fred Marcellino won fame with his "Puss in Boots" drawings -- which are as grand as something from Paul Zelinsky. The Marcellino volume is also known for its strange, wordless cover (something very rare in children's literature, but something you also see in Jerry Pinkney's "The Lion and the Mouse").









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