It then hung in the air briefly before falling from the fence. Suddenly, a gust of wind came and the cat teetered precariously. He kept his eye on the cat as he went back and forth with the lawnmower.
This particular cat had a habit of attacking Rob when he least expected it.
Rob was running his lawnmower in his backyard one summer day when his eyes spotted this ugly beast on top of his fence. I’ve found that my ideas come from everyday things that happen in life. As a fellow writer working on 2 manuscripts of my own, I love hearing how the seeds of ideas get started. Listening to Rob speak, I especially found the “insider information” about his inspiration intriguing. But I can assure you that each of us in the audience loved to listen–to his ideas and accent! His picture books about Splat the Cat are very popular, causing a long book signing line at the festival. This author from Rutland, England, loves to talk. Ages 3–7.What a pleasure it was for me to meet Rob Scotton at the Texas Book Festival last weekend. Rambunctious, filled with superbly executed details (look for Seymour when Splat pulls his mildly sheer sheets over his head), this book not only gets its job done, it completely transcends its agenda. Naturally, everything works out before the dismissal bell rings, but not before a chase sequence guaranteed to bring down the house. For courage, Splat secretly brings along his pet mouse, Seymour, and is astounded when the day's lesson includes the news that cats chase mice (to Splat's multiple “Why?”s, the teacher offers a finite “Because”). Right away the art signals off-kilter: using a predominantly blue-gray palette, enlivened by only one or two contrast colors per page, Scotton evokes the black cat Splat in almost 3D renderings, the cat's hairs seemingly standing on edge, eyes bulging apprehensively as he contemplates his first appearance at Cat School. Working in the same edgy style of his Russell the Sheep books, Scotton once again wrests new opportunities for humor from a well-worn theme, this time training his sights on first-day-of-school anxiety.
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