Ginger Finds a Home - Hardcover

Charlotte Voake is a highly acclaimed author and illustrator of books for children, including GINGER, for which she won the 1997 Smarties Book Prize Gold Award. She illustrated ELSIE PIDDOCK SKIPS IN HER SLEEP by Eleanor Farjeon and has been short-listed four times for the prestigious Kurt Maschler Award in Britain. Of her inspiration for GINGER FINDS A HOME, she says, "We had a cat who lived at the
bottom of our garden, and it was a great moment when he decided to come and live with us."

*Starred Review* PreS-K. In Ginger (1997), a little gray kitten enters a household and gradually wins the acceptance of the established cat, Ginger. This takes place some years earlier, when Ginger is a scrawny young cat who drinks from puddles, eats from trash cans, and lives in a patch of weeds. A little girl puts out food for him and encourages him to come into her home and live with her. Unused to people and houses, he nervously runs away, but little by little, the skittish cat comes creeping back, to the child's great joy. The simple, good-hearted story will touch children as they identify with both Ginger's tentativeness and the little girl's longing. Accomplished with a lively, almost scruffy line, the ink-and-watercolor artwork captures equally well the body language of both Ginger and the girl. Neophyte picture-book artists who cram the pages with saturated colors and busy details have a lot to learn from Voake's economical approach, which makes it easy for young children to sense the characters' emotions and to care about the story's outcome. A fine choice for reading aloud, this satisfying picture book has immediate eye appeal and a story that children will want to hear again. Carolyn Phelan
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