Stand by Your Cat: The Unlikely Best Friends Adventures of Sara, the Pineapple Cat

Cherokee Wyatt
David Olin Tullis (2008)
ISBN 9781434899170
Reviewed by Cayden Aures (age 4) and Mom for Reader Views (7/08)


“Stand by Your Cat: The Unlikely Best Friends Adventures of Sara, the Pineapple Cat” is the second book in a series of Sara, the Pineapple Cat adventures.  This book explores Sara’s relationship with Chewie, the chocolate lab puppy who lives next door.  Sara was always annoyed by Chewie until she was threatened by two large dogs and Chewie came to her rescue.

“It is the pineapple cat again, but she looks different this time.  Are you sure that is the same cat?”

“I like the dog and cat borders around the words.”

“I like the puppy Chewie.”

“Why doesn’t Sara like Chewie?  He is just trying to play!”

“What does that word mean?”

“Who are those dogs?  How come the pictures aren’t matching the words?”

“Those dogs look mean!  How did they get in her yard?  I hope they don’t get her!”

Parent’s comments:

I found it interesting that this second book in the series, “Stand by Your Cat: The Unlikely Best Friends Adventures of Sara, the Pineapple Cat,” was written and illustrated by a different author and illustrator than the first in the series.  In this second book the cat looked like a different cat taking away a little from the consistency of a series.  Also, as you can see by Cayden’s comments, the mean dogs showed up in the illustrations two pages before they were mentioned in the text.  We did have a proof copy of the book so I am hoping that this will be corrected in the final edit.

Some of the vocabulary used in this book was a little over my 4-year-old’s head.  A few examples of the words used in the book that are a little advanced for a preschooler are:  undisputed, stature, unceremoniously, and regally.  My child is one who questions every word he doesn’t know, so these large words took away from the flow of the story as he kept inquiring as to what certain words meant.

Despite the flaws of the book, we did enjoy the main story told in “Stand by Your Cat: The Unlikely Best Friends Adventures of Sara, the Pineapple Cat,” and the illustrations that matched the text were appealing and well-done.      

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