Fred Marcellino 2011
Fred Marcellino: Having culled through dozens of stories in search of the right one for nearly a decade, Marcellino immediately recognized the pictorial possibilities in the text, and agreed to take on the project. He then produced a body of illustrations in colored pencil with a degree of refinement rare in the field. The story’s historical setting allowed him to give free-reign to his penchant for the Baroque, and to his admiration for late-Renaissance perspective explorations. When he tackled the cover design, he found “no room for the type.” His long-standing devotion to typography notwithstanding, this now famous image of Puss was allowed to grace the jacket unencumbered. In a highly unusual gesture, the Caldecott committee elected to bestow its coveted “Honor” award on this first picture book effort.
Puss in Boots is a French Fairy Tale by Charles Perault. Your library visitors will probably relate this story to the character from Shrek.
Story summary: A miller's youngest son is left with his father's cat after his passing. Seeing his new master is dissatisfied with his inheritance, the cat requests some boots and a sack and departs into the countryside to prove his worth. The cat hunts numerous animals and presents them to the king, saying the game is gift from his master, the Marquis de Carabas. When the king takes a drive along the river with his daughter, the cat plans for the king and his master to cross paths. The cat then hides his master's clothes and convinces the king that his master was drowning and robbed, to which the king replies with new, fancy clothes for the "Marquis" and asks for him to join him in his carriage. The cat runs ahead and threatens all the people working the land along the king's path to tell the king that they work for the Marquis. The cat finally comes to an ogre's luxurious castle, where he asks the ogre to turn into a mouse. The cat then kills and eats him and presents the castle to the king as belonging to his master. The king is so impressed with the Marquis' wares that he offers him his daughter's hand in marriage. The cat becomes a lord with fancy clothes. Source
Illustrated by Cecile Becq (2014)
Illustrated by Jerry Pinkney (paperback edition 2015)
Retold by Joy Cowley illustrations by Sam-Hyeon Kim (2014)
Illustrated by Ian Beck
