During the first reading, your child and you will study the illustrations to infer what they tell us about the story. You will look at the evidence in the prints to form predictions about who the characters are, what their problem is, and how a solution is reached. You will be repeating the questions that the brain needs answered in order to form an inference or prediction. The basic questions are the two questions that you see below for pages 1 – 3.

 

Page 1 – 3:

~What do you see?

~What do you think is happening?

 

Page 4:

~What do you see?

~ How many cats do you see in the illustration? Could this illustration have a connection to the title?

~What would it sound like if this many cats are all together?

 

Pages 6 – 9:

~What do you see? (It looks like the man is picking out some cats.)

~By looking at the man’s face, can you tell how he feels about cats?

~Count the cats in each of the illustrations. How many cats is the man holding? Do you think he will pick up the cat on page 9? Why or why not?

~Why is the old man picking up the cats?

 

Page 10 – 13:

~How many cats is the old man holding on page 10?

~What is he going to do about all the other cats in the picture?

~On page 12, where is he going with the cats?

~On page 13, can you tell from the illustrations how the old man is feeling about being followed by so many cats?

 

Pages 14 – 15:

~Where are they? (by a pond)

~ On page 15, what has happened to the pond? Why do you think the water has disappeared?

 

Pages 16 – 19:

~On page 18, look at the woman’s face. How do you think she is feeling about all the cats?

~What might the man and the woman be saying to each other?

 

Page 21:

~What do you think is happening? Why might the man and the woman be running?

 

Pages 22 – 23:

~What do you see?

~Where might all the other cats have gone?

 

Pages 24 – 27:

~On page 24 and 25, what do you see in the illustrations?

~On page 25, look at the faces of the man and the woman. What might they be saying to each other?

~Look at the pictures of the cat. How does the cat change from the first picture to the last?

 

Page 29:

~What do you see?

~How would you describe the ending of the story?