No Kiss for Mother
Tomi Ungerer ~ Delacorte Press, 1973
Rarely do children's books illustrate how truly rotten kids can be sometimes. For any mother who's had to love a spoiled brat despite his brattiness, this cat's for you. The pencil drawings are the perfect pairing for this story of a cat gone bad and the mother who puts up with him.
"Time to get up, Honey Pie," calls Mother Paws as she bends down to wedge a kiss in Sonny's ear. And THAT wakes Piper up.
Piper hates to be kissed and to be kissed out of such a captivating dream is just about the most annoying thing in the whole world.
This after destroying his alarm clock and before faking brushing his teeth. The wretched, little feline then proceeds to mess up the clean and pressed clothes his mother laid out for him, metaphorically spit on the food she serves him and get into a debate as to whether or not a "Honey Pie" is an actual dessert. No surprise to find out that he is "known as a rowdy at school" setting off stink bombs and getting into cat fights. When spoiling mommy finally gets fed up and socks him one, you can hear mothers the world over cheering that the wee toot finally gets what's coming to him.
Not to fear, the book ends on a happy note, with the kitten turning a new leaf and gifting his doting mother flowers. But still... no kiss for mother. Ugh. I'm dreading the day, my friends, if and when my boy refuses my affections. Shoot me now.
Also by:Crictor
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Zarelda's Ogre
Seeds and More Seeds
The Three Robbers
Moon Man
Orlando The Brave Vulture
Christmas Eve at the Mellops'
I Am Papa Snap and These Are My Favorite No Such Stories
The Beast of Monsieur Racine
Allumette
The Mellops Strike Oil
Book of Various Owls
Rufus
Emile
Adelaide
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5 comments:
Love this! THe drawings are fantastic and what a naughty tall my cheeky 4 y/o will love it....fingers crossed google can help me out with this one!
i hesitated buying it online as it can be expensive, but it's the most like a true "chapter book" of all the ungerer books I've seen. different and worth it.
Ultra cool! Reminds my of Chess's work. Never seen this Ungerer before. Thank you for sharing.
My mother read this book to me when I was a kid. Recently, I quoted the book back to her and we both had a laugh.
Here's the quote:
"If you have any doubts you can check it with my cane, who is an authority on corrections."
Found your blog through Mike Lynch's link, and thoroughly enjoy what you've got going on here. And I REALLY love that you've got No Kiss For Mother on your list. I adored this book as a kid, and a couple of years back found a (not inexpensive, but completely worth the price) copy online and purchased it for my son. He was a bit young at the time, but he grew into it (he's 7 now) and that book literally lives in his bed these days, and we read it together and just laugh and laugh. I love the fact that it is a book in which the "kids" are not perfect (not at all!) but very real. It doesn't talk down to the reader, and it is definitely a chapter book. Thoroughly enjoyable for adults as well as kids (maybe even more so).
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