From Publishers Weekly
This version of Lear's popular poem is distinguished by its very Victorian but unfussy illustrations, which focus not only on the familiar lovestruck pair, but on their very model of a Grand Tour. After festively boarding a luxurious "pea-green" boat decorated with gilded carvings, the couple--together with assorted animal families--ride gondolas, sail past the Statue of Liberty and land on a tropical island where passengers and crew celebrate their nuptials. In Todd's masterful renditions, these elegant, genteel settings and costumes are almost photographic in their clarity. Models of propriety abound: sumptuous teas are served, and guests gather for a shipboard musicale where the owl "sang to a small guitar." The dapper creature is resplendent in a plaid deerstalker cap and (later) in tails with blue spats, while his perfectly beguiling mate dazzles with her lace bustles and parasols. Detailed without being cluttered, the illustrations are inventive without stretching the text too far in this perfectly satisfying variation on an old favorite. All ages. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 2-Beck's rendition of Lear's beloved nonsense poem is a soft watercolored adventure just right for little ones drifting off to sleep. The artist's version begins with end papers showing a map of the journey "to the land where the Bong-tree grows." The emphasis is on scenes of the night sky and lapping blue waves as the pair sail away in their pea-green boat. Lear's lyrical language is infectious even when one has no idea of what a runcible spoon might be. Beck's owl and pussy-cat lack the individual character shown in Jan Brett's interpretation (Putnam, 1991). They're more generic here, but Beck puts them in cozy background settings. The pages are well designed; the type for the line, "They sailed away for a year and a day" waves across the bottom of a double-page spread set with small ovals for each month and filled with illustrations of the pair's changing activities and weather. Certainly worthy of a spot in most collection, even for libraries having Brett's lovely version.Judith Gloyer, Milwaukee Public LibraryCopyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Ages 2^-6. Illustrating Lear's classic poem with simplicity and good humor, Beck provides a series of rather literal interpretations of the familiar lines, exactly what preschoolers need to understand what's going on in the verses. Crosshatched ink drawings are brightened with watercolor washes in the full-page and double-page pictures. Glancing at the six or eight picture-book versions of the poem in their collections, some librarians may wonder if they need yet another. Perhaps not, and yet the large scale and the innocent air of Beck's artwork make this edition more accessible to younger children than some other versions. A charmer. Carolyn Phelan


Review
"Galdone uses his imagination to extend Lear's ideas, creating a memorable version suitable for the youngest."

ANNOTATION

After a courtship voyage of a year and a day, Owl and Pussy finally buy a ring from Piggy and are blissfully married.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Lear's nonsense classic about the unlikely romance between a pussycat and an owl.

FROM THE CRITICS

Horn Book Magazine

Lear's pea-green boat sails again, this time with the inimitable James Marshall at the helm. Envisioned as the S.S. Dorabella, this cruise ship will escort the Owl and his fianc￯﾿ﾽe, the profoundly clothes-conscious Pussycat, from Pier 23, laden with suitcases marked for ports of call around the world. On calm seas, tuxedoed Owl serenades the flapper-inspired Pussycat seated in her deck chair; in rougher waters, Owl braves the weather to photograph his windblown beloved. Owl and Pussycat join the legion of goofy original Marshall creations: in their grass skirts and leis, the exaggerated portly twosome (he with his signature wide-owl eyes; she with coy looks and rouge-dotted cheeks) highstep it by the light of the moon. At his wacky best, watercolorist Marshall limns a huge priestly turkey, all seriousness with his pince-nez glasses and preposterous wattle; outfitted with a regal purple headdress and matching scarf, the extravagant turkey marries the dapper couple. Lear's famous poem, here calligraphed in white and black crayon, receives an irreverent, gently playful rendition. In a deeply personal afterword, dear friend Maurice Sendak pays homage to Marshall, who shared with him the "sketches" that became Marshall's final largess to his devoted following. Sendak is exactly right when he pronounces that, with this last book, Marshall's "charming slap-happiness [is] now wed to an odd poignancy that conjure[s] a sweet new essence."

Publishers Weekly

Hague gives free rein to dark whimsy in this eclectic sampling of Lear's verse, which includes such favorites as the title poem as well as "The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo," "The Cummerbund" and a host of limericks. Lear's menagerie of odd creatures and peculiar persons (e.g., the "Young Lady whose eyes/ Were unique as to color and size") provide rich material for Hague to work with, and he exploits it with robust comic grotesqueries. Saturated earth tones mix with fiery flashes of red and orange in a combination that's instantly identifiable as pure Hague, as is the profusion of detail. Ending, tongue firmly in cheek, with the limerick "There Was an Old Man of the Hague," the artist includes what just might be a sly self-portrait. Ages 5-8. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

The blissful pairing of the owl and the pussycat isn't the only marriage made in heaven here-Wilson's (The Beautiful World that God Made) punchy collage art proves an exuberant partner to Lear's classic nonsense verse. Combining patterned papers printed with rich inks, the artist concocts a beguilingly off-kilter setting that, like the text, up-ends convention. The starring characters have a surface simplicity, but in fact each is highly stylized. Bronze and copper circles and curves adorn the paper from which Pussy is cut, while Owl is more complicated: gold squiggles thinly drawn on orange suggest the feathers for his head and wings, an orange oval printed with an open-weave-type design creates the texture on his breast and his face is a streamlined assemblage of simple solid shapes. However elaborate the components, the illustrations are remarkably harmonious, unified by subtly geometric motifs. When, for instance, the loving couple sails away, "for a year and a day," Wilson shows the two in their peapod-like craft ascending a circular horizon; the half-oval of sea they cross to reach "the land where the Bong-tree grows" is echoed in the ovoid shapes of those trees, each of which boasts detailed, bright designs. Elsewhere, curved lines of type reinforce the structure of the composition. Witty, fresh and rhythmic, Wilson's illustrations mirror Lear's whimsy and capture his musicality. Ages 3-7. (Apr.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

"Galdone uses his imagination to extend Lear's ideas, creating a memorable version suitable for the youngest."

Children's Literature - Kathleen Karr