Hard Hat Cat!
(eBook)

Kar-Ben Read-Aloud eBooks with Audio combine professional narration and text highlighting to bring eBooks to life! Of all the stray cats in Israel, a kitten sits high in a tree above girders, beams, cement mixers and cranes. Avi wants to adopt the friendly kitten although his mom-and the family dog- don't like the idea. But every day the clever cat comes back, becoming a family's "forever cat"! "Hard Hat Cat! written by Jamie Kiffel-Alcheh and delightfully illustrated by Maxine Lee, follows a young boy and a special little cat. The boy lives across the street from a construction site. He is befriended by a kitten who lives near the site. But, as his mom tells im, Israel is filled with stray cats and they can't take care of them all. Not to mention, they already own…a Woof! But Kitten returns day after day and finally the boy tries his best to find his friend a good home. Then one day, Kitten disappears, and the search is on. A happy surprise ends this fun story of caring and friendship." - Marcia Berneger, San Diego Jewish World "Many Jew­ish chil­dren in the Unit­ed States have an image of Israel, which comes from news head­lines, Hebrew school class­es, or tourists' accounts. These impres­sions are often skewed; they present only a small slice of the com­plex life in the vibrant, mod­ern Israeli cul­ture where chil­dren, sim­i­lar to the read­er, live dai­ly lives that are dif­fer­ent than and yet par­al­lel to their own. It is always refresh­ing to find a sto­ry writ­ten for Amer­i­can chil­dren which reflects every­day Israel in a way that is both char­ac­ter­is­tic, yet familiar. This sim­ple pic­ture book about a young Israeli boy who feeds a stray kit­ten near a con­struc­tion site address­es a uni­ver­sal theme but has an authen­tic Israeli fla­vor. Young Ari feeds the aban­doned kit­ten and wor­ries about its future, hop­ing to find a fam­i­ly who will adopt the lit­tle cat and will care for it with love. The sto­ry uses Hebrew terms in a nat­ur­al and unforced way, blend­ing the Hebrew vocab­u­lary seam­less­ly into the tale. While roam­ing the streets, the kit­ten pass­es a felafel stand, the local borekas man, and the shuk. Israel is known for its stray cat pop­u­la­tion and Ari's saf­ta (grand­moth­er) and doda (aunt) tell him about the many street cats prowl­ing the cities. Ari is over­joyed when he finds a fam­i­ly who wants to adopt the kit­ten and care for it, blend­ing the sto­ry's theme of Israeli life with the impor­tant Jew­ish val­ue of kind­ness to all liv­ing beings. The bold, bright illus­tra­tions are an inte­gral part of this col­or­ful pic­ture of Israeli life. Round-faced, smil­ing, live­ly peo­ple reflect the diver­si­ty of Israel's pop­u­la­tion, red-roofed hous­es evoke Israeli cities and towns, and the appeal­ing kit­ten will make young read­ers wish for pets of their own. An author's note tells read­ers that the sto­ry is based on her own per­son­al encounter with a stray kit­ten in Israel and a glos­sary of the Hebrew terms used in the sto­ry is included." - Michel Hoschander Malen, Jewish Book Council "This picture book tells the story of how a stray cat, who hangs out at a construction site in Israel, comes to find his forever home. The story is told from the perspective of Ari, a young boy who notices the cat but whose mom won't let him keep it. Children will be able to relate to Ari's desire to keep the stray animal and they will follow along as Ari visits all of his neighbors, trying to entice them to adopt the cat. Kiffel-Alcheh's writing is an unusual blend of poetry, prose, and sounds. While the plot will appeal to children as old as 8, the writing contains onomatopoeic words geared towards a much younger audience ("meow meow, bzz bzz!, bang bang," etc.). Some older children might be put off by that. Still, the pacing of the story is e