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Monday, November 12, 2012

Carter Is A Painter's Cat

 
by Carolyn Sloan
illustrated by Fritz Wegner
 
1971
 
"Mr. Blot is a painter.  He paints pictures of cats - not ordinary cats, but me!  He paints me every morning on a fresh piece of paper and he calls me Carter."
 
So begins this crazy story about a cat named Carter who is painted each day by his master/painter, Mr. Blot.  Each day, Carter is made anew.  Afresh.  And slightly askew.  One day, poor Carter is left feeling awfully blue. 
 
Quite literally, due to an unfortunate brush and paint accident.
 
And so becomes the laughingstock of Fred and Ruby, two cats who live at the cafe.
 
On Tuesday, Mr. Blot forgets to fill in Carter's outline, thus rendering him invisible.  Which could come in quite handy for a mischevious cat.
 
And on Wednesday?  My goodness, on Wednesday Mr. Blot is kind of stingy with the paint, and thus, poor Carter is so thin he slips down the sewer grating while out catting around.  A kind lady rescues him, takes him in, and feeds him all her meat loaf.
 
But the fun really begins, when one day, Mr. Blot doesn't come home.  So Carter, feeling fine and dandy in his newly painted upright carriage and handsome suit, and eager to try something new, opens Mr. Blot's paintbox, takes out a tube of paint and squeezes "a big red squeeze."
 
 
And then, Carter gives this book a most appropriate ending. 
 
 
Carter paints . . .
 
 
Mr. Blot,
 
 
in the bathtub.
 
 
And leaves him there.
 
 


5 comments:

  1. Adorable! I like your new blog look!

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  2. Thank you! I've wanted to get back to blogging for awhile now, strictly children's book blogging, but I wanted to wait until I had the new look ready.

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  3. So happy to see you. I tried to leave a message on your blog last week asking when you were going to write again, but it wouldn't let me post. I hope this does!

    What do you mean by strictly children's book blogging?

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  4. I've moved all family/homeschooling related posts to a new blog http://hesmerfred.blogspot.com/

    So far it's very generic. I haven't given it a real name yet and I haven't done anything with the design. But the posts are there, although they are out of order. I plan on keeping up with both blogs.

    The reason I made them separate is that I wanted my children's books blog to go hand in hand with my etsy book shop, sort of a feature spot for the books I sell, so people can get a good look at the books they are planning to purchase.

    I will still be book blogging on my famiy blog. The difference is that I will occassionaly feature books I've bought with my etsy profits - old, antique books, such as the 1880 leather set of Dickens I bought some months back.

    Two blogs for two very different readerships.

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  5. Oh my goodness, this was one of my favorite books when I was a kid! I seem to remember that there was one day he was dressed in a very fine suit so he went out for fish and chips, and another day when Mr. Blot forgot to paint his whiskers and he got stuck in a hole in a fence.

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