Naughty Cherie!

Oates, J.C. (2008). Naughty Cherie! (M. Graham, illus.). New York: HarperCollins.

Genre/Format: Picture Storybook
Age Recommendation: 3-5 years

Simple and charming, this book is a perfect book for young children who just want to hear a story. Cherie is the cutest of his litter and is by far the little girl, Evan's, favorite. There's only one problem, though: Cherie is very naughty! He climbs on the table, pulls down the curtains, gets inside the piano, and causes all kinds of ruckus. One day the Smith family had enough, so Mrs. Smith put Cherie in a time-out in the corner, but all the little kitten thought was "I don't have to be 'good.' I'm little Cherie." It was then that Cherie noticed a small crack in the wall that led the kitten down a stairwell and into "Little Friends Kindercare," where a baby elephant, ostrich, giraffe, monkey, and panda were all gathered together playing. Cherie spent time with the other animals only to witness their misbehavior and in time grew weary of them and their shenannigans. Cherie then headed back upstairs and from then on was on his best behavior.

The best part of this book was by far the illustrations. The paintings perfectly captured the expressions and mannerisms of a real kitten, and even the Smith family were drawn with extreme realism. The plot, however, suffered in my opinion. The books greatest flaw was its failure to provide an explanation as to what "Little Friends Kindercare" was and why it was there. Was it a magical world? Was the kitten merely dreaming? No explanation is given whatsoever, so readers are left wondering "What just happened?" The scene is of course a necessity to the story as it's how Cherie learns his lesson, but the effort should have been taken to provide some logical explanation. I would recommend this book for young readers ages three to five years, as it provides a lesson about what is good and bad behavior and how inconvenient and hurtful bad behavior can be towards others. In addition, the fact that the main character is a kitten will certainly keep their attention. Overall, I would consider this to be a mediocre book, and therefore wouldn't recommend it for anything other than light reading.

Blankenship, D. (2010, January 11). Naughty Cherie! by Joyce Carol Oates. Retrieved May 5, 2010 from http://www.booksforkids-reviews.com/2010/01/naughty-cherie-by-joyce-carol-oates.html.

It was difficult to even find a review on this book as it surprisingly, despite its well-known author, hasn't gained much attention in the literary realm. This review gave the basic background of the plot to the story and had many positive things to say, but it wasn't of the greatest quality. The grammar and the sentence structure was poor and a little too simple for an adult audience, so that made it difficult for me to take anything they had to say about it seriously. I would agree that the illustrations were good and even the text was for the most part decent, but I wouldn't rave about it near as much as Blankenship did.