Chato's Kitchen

Soto, G. (1995). Chato's Kitchen. New York, NY: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 

Even the slickest cat can get out smarted. Chato the cat gets a meal by sneaking up on sparrows and catching unsuspecting mice. One day a family of mice move in next door and Chato sees an opportunity to have a meal and is relishing on how easy it will be to have the mice as dinner. But the mice invite a friend from their old neighborhood that will turn the tables on Chato.

This is a funny story with a delightful twist. Gary Soto includes some Spanish phrases through out the book. This would qualify the book as bilingual. The characters Chato and Novio Boy are written with some rather broad stereotypes. I think that might have been the author's intention. That is the only critique I would make. The illustrations are bright, large, and follow along with the details in the story. The illustrations are what received the Pura Belpre medal.

This would be a fun book to share with a young audience and have them try to guess what Chato's intentions really are.