Come Down, Cat! | Sonya Hartnett

Sonya Harnett would have to be the darling of the CBCA; there are not many times in recent years when one of her books has not been on the shortlist.

2012 is no exception!

This year she has a beautifully designed picture book on offer, Come Down, Cat! The illustrations have been done by Lucia Masciullo. They have a lovely Mediterranean feel about them with lots of muted blues and ochres.

I love Hartnett’s choice of language in this book right down to her decision to use “marl” for the cat’s speaking voice.

The cat is so cat-like in it’s behaviour that I found myself missing all the cats that have been in my life over the years, especially our childhood cat, Tiger, who regularly got himself stuck on the roof!

_{The day is ending, night is falling, and Nicholas’s cat won’t come down. High on the roof she licks her paws while Nicholas worries about her up there all alone. How does he coax her into the safe, warm house? She doesn’t even want to come down from the roof… or does she?}