The Owl and the Pussycat

Owl sets out to woo Pussycat in a boat laden with fruit and with a guitar at his side, ready for serenading. Pussycat sits looking elegant and demure, waiting to be courted. But as they sail off across the sea, another love story unfolds in the clear water beneath the boat. "Brett sets Lear's beloved poem of courtly nonsense in a lush, brilliantly lit Caribbean landscape."--Booklist, starred review. Full color.

"The Owl and the Pussycat went to sea / In a beautiful pea-green boat. / They took some honey, and plenty of money, / Wrapped up in a five-pound note." The Owl and the Pussycat make quite a couple. On the decks of the pea-green S.S. Dorabella, the lovesick, bulgy-eyed Owl serenades his jowly feline sweetheart, inspiring her to grab him, dip him, and propose (demand?) marriage. They sail to an island, where they persuade the Piggywig to sell them the ring at the end of his nose to use as a wedding ring, are married by a turkey who lives on a hill, and then dance by the light of the moon. James Marshall--beloved creator of the unforgettable hippos George and Martha--graces Edward Lear's classic nonsense poem "The Owl and the Pussycat" with his winsome, goofy watercolor sketches in the final work before his death in 1992. As his dear friend Maurice Sendak writes in the afterword of this historic book, "There was never such an Owl and Pussycat, certainly not since Edward Lear, and for my money James surpasses Lear's original pictures in sheer giddy humor and heartfeltness." This is the kind of book that adults wish they had grown up with, and that children will remember their whole lives. (All ages) --Karin Snelson