Gracie The Lighthouse Cat
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
by Ruth Brown, Andersen Press, hardback, 10.99
As with Anthony Browne's latest book, so that of Ruth Brown also features parallel tales. Here the true story of Grace Darling is told through the illustrations alone and is mirrored in that of her cat, who rescues her kitten after being swept out to sea in the midst of a storm.
This clever construction and atmospheric images convey to young children the ferociousness of the storm and desperation of the cats, while also providing them with some understanding of real-life Grace's feat of bravery as she helped her father rescue nine people shipwrecked and stranded on rocks near their lighthouse.