The Adventures of Miss Petitfour

September 21, 2015
In her first children’s book, adult author Michaels presents five stories driven equally by whimsy and self-aware humor. They concern Miss Petitfour, a lithe, redheaded young woman with 16 cats and a tendency to go where the wind takes her. Quite literally: she travels by catching breezes with a tablecloth, her cats trailing behind her like a kite’s tail. Michaels is fond of digressions, one of many vocabulary words she highlights as the narrative comments on the peculiarities of storytelling (“Certain words are like twists of crumpled paper jammed into the hole in the bottom of a leaky pail, to keep the story from spilling out too quickly”). Block’s delicate color illustrations are ideally suited to Miss Petitfour’s subdued and decidedly eccentric adventures, which involve everything from an empty marmalade jar to a lost stamp. Ages 6–9.

August 15, 2015
Miss Petitfour is a quirky, creative, charming, magical cat lover. The narrator speaks directly to readers in a schoolmarmish sort of voice, first introducing the heroine and each of her 16 cats. Each odd, whimsical adventure involves Miss Petitfour's ability to use carefully selected tablecloths as a means of flying around her village, with her cats forming a kind of kite tail or ballast. There is nothing normal about this village or any of its inhabitants. There are handsome, giant-sized shop signs and delightfully named villagers who are perfectly accepting of Miss Petitfour's aeronautic abilities. Michaels employs a rhythmic syntax that provides long descriptive lists of everything from the items in a jumble sale through the rare stamps in an album to silly book titles. The names of each of the 16 cats are repeated again and again. Woven through the tales are instructions on the techniques of storytelling. Examples of digressions and key phrases that move the story along, such as "fortunately" and "then one day," are explained and demonstrated. A multitude of words that tickle the tongue-"gesticulating," "propitious"-are defined within the stories. These words and phrases are flagged with italics or uppercase letters and printed in colored ink. Block's charming, full-color illustrations complement the tales in a decidedly mid-20th-century modern style. An homage to classic fantasies for an audience willing to suspend all disbelief and just go along for the ride. (Fantasy. 8-11)

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Starred review from December 1, 2015

Gr 1-4-Meet Miss Petitfour-baker, adventurer, cat-lover, reader, stamp-collector, and storyteller-and her multitudinous cats in this episodic, begging-to-be-read-aloud illustrated chapter book. Its comedic irreverence and spirited play with words, names, and pirate lore will remind readers of Mary Poppins and Pippi Longstocking. Children will savor the whimsical language and conversational tone as well as the nameless village with its wordless wooden signs ("[T]his village was friendly to all even the youngest who didn't yet know how to read and to a stranger who spoke a foreign language."). The bookstore has two sections: the "hum" section, where adventure is king, and the "ho-hum" section, where nothing much happens. There is plenty of hum in this tale, such as the stormy day when Miss Petitfour and her cats get stuck on the bell tower while traveling by a transparent plastic tablecloth "as invisible as the rain itself." A subplot concerns what makes a good story, explicitly highlighting (in font and tone) words that govern pacing: "Some words are like rays of light, white knights or a safety pin at the right moment...like 'unbelievably' or 'by great fortune.'" Then the author proceeds to use those words herself, ostensibly instructing young ones how to write digressive adventure stories. VERDICT Highly recommended for story lovers of all shapes and sizes.-Sara Lissa Paulson, City-As-School High School, New York City

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