Episode 69 - Dogs vs Cats (Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy, Slinky Malinki and Varjak Paw) with special guest Annie

This week, the ultimate showdown: cats vs dogs. Our guest Annie Cross brings us a picture book for each side of the dyad: Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy and Slinky Malinki, both by the legendary Lynley Dodd. We talk about what sets Dodd's books apart from so many other samey animal books with rhyming words. It's the quality of the writing, the sense of fun. Annie reminisces about her own babyhood with these books, Matt tells the story about the one time they were conned by a tiny little kitten called Lightning, and we all agree that black cats in kids' books are especially iconic.

Our chapter book is Varjak Paw by SF Said, with pictures by Dave McKean. This one is a new favourite. Simply put, it is the story of a domestic cat who gets outside for the first time and is set a quest: find a dog, talk to it, save his family from an evil invader. Easy! To help keep him alive, Varjak is visited in his dreams by his long-dead ancestor Jalal, who teaches him the feline martial arts skillset known as The Way. Varjak gets stronger, wiser, scrappier. Will all these new tricks be enough to allow him to save his thoroughbred cat family back home? When push comes to shove, who will he choose? His proud and vain family of domestic cats, or his new outdoor friends?

We reference a lot of previous episodes in this one: Winnie the Witch, I Love My Bike and A First Book of Dinosaurs, Warrior Cats: Into the Wild, and The Gammage Cup.

We chatted about this interview that SF Said gave for the Guardian, and this blog post about the writing process for the British Library.

Nina shouted out Afoma Umesi's Reading Middle Grade blog. The Kid Cover Test can be read here.

If you'd like to support us and get access to bonus content, you can join our patreon here.

Another way to support us is to shop our picks on our bookshop here

What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com

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Episoder(85)

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