Puss and Boots

Puss and Boots

Title: Puss and Boots

Genre: Traditional Literature

Author: Charles Perrault

Illustrator: Fred Marcellino

Awards: Randolph Caldecott Medal 1991

Age group: 6 years old and up

Before reading this book I only knew of the cartoon version of puss and boots. I found that the book version is very different, so you must read it before you judge it. It was also quite fascinating to find out the real backstory of puss and boots. I believe this version did a very good job of telling the story with great illustrations.

Summary:

In the beginning the father of the three sons dies and leaves his three sons only his mill, a donkey, and a cat. The first son gets a mill; the second son gets the donkey the third son gets the cat. The third son is not happy about getting the cat he does not believe he can live off of it. But then the cat says give me boots and a sack and I will make you rich. Then the cat starts to kills animals and then takes them to the king and says it is from his master and he repeats this for a couple times. Then he tells his master to go swimming in the lake, this lake happens to be where the king would be at. Then the cat yells that his master is drowning and the king’s men pull him out of the water. The cat also says he lost his clothes from Robbers. So the king clothes him in fine clothes .The kings princess notices how handsome he is in the clothes. Then as they ride in the carriage together the cat goes ahead and tells all the people of the estates they pass that they will say this is his masters owns the fields or else. The king admired the master’s fields. Then finally the cat comes to a castle which is owned by an ogre and tricks him into turning himself into a mouse and then eats the ogre .Then when the king reaches this castle the cat says it belongs to his master .Then after seeing this impressive castle the king offers his daughter to be his wife and they then live in a castle and live happily ever after. In the end the cat no longer must catch mice unless for fun.

I’m not quite sure I’d use this book in my classroom just because the fact it doesn’t teach a very good life lesson such as lying will give you wealth. But it is a fun story.

I feel the appropriate grade level for this book is 1^st -8^th grade. This story does contain some somewhat gruesome things such as the killing of animals( but does not show blood).But I still believe it is OK for at least a first grade reader and up because it is fairly easy to read. This story can be good for all age’s even adults because it is a classic story. The book does have a somewhat short paragraph per page layout but the font is big so it is easy to read.

I believe I could use this book as either one in many read alouds of classic tales or as books about heroism.

HAVE FUN READING!💙-Lacy