Hello, friends! Our book today is Cat & Dog: A Tale of Opposites by Tullio Corda, a simple and entertaining story of a pair of feisty frenemies.

Told by combining single- or double-word opposite pairs with illustrations, the reader follows the red cat and blue dog through a day of misadventures, primarily fueled by the cat’s sneaky and mischievous actions and the sweet yet dopey dog’s reactions. Readers can explore opposites such as above/below, quiet/loud, soft/hard, and so on, as the cat and dog stumble through a series of antics and interactions.

Simple and cute. While the concept is fairly basic and the story not particularly noteworthy, this translated import still has a good amount going for it. The illustrations are bright, colorful, and full of inoffensive, child-friendly visual humor that made JJ smile. And for beginning-readers, the simplicity of the words used to convey the opposite pairs is a plus – JJ was able to read nearly the entire book on her own, with only a few corrections on longer words like “unconcerned”. It’s a quick title that would make for a brief read, but for kids learning their opposites or beginning to read by themselves, this could be a nice easy read to help build confidence. Overall, it’s not a bad little book; nothing groundbreaking, but a well-constructed update on some classical literacy-comprehension themes, and worth a look. All in all, Baby Bookworm approved!

(Note: A copy of this book was provided to The Baby Bookworm by a representative of the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)