Cat's Got Your Tongue?: A Story for Children Afraid to Speak Book

Anna chooses not to talk when she enters kindergarten, but then she discovers the pleasures of self-expression in the security of a therapist's office.

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 2-- Anna is a timid kindergartener who takes no joy in her new school clothes or her classmates. Instead she frequently dissolves into tears and refuses to talk. Referred to a child psychologist, Anna begins to express herself through drawing and puppetry. Eventually her father videotapes her version of ``Puss 'n' Boots,'' which Anna willingly shows to her class. Their approval encourages her to begin speaking and making friends. The simple, straightforward text is obvious in its purpose, and the full-page black-and-white illustrations are sensitive and realistic; the soft pencil medium is well suited to showing Anna's unhappiness. With appropriate adult direction, this would be a useful bibliotherapeutic tool either to help a child who has this problem or to gain the sympathy and understanding of others. --Patricia Pearl Dole, formerly at First Presbyterian School, Martinsville, VA