Published by Chronicle Books

Summary:  Grandma’s coming for a visit, and it’s time to get the house whipped into shape.  The narrator posts a list of chores on the refrigerator with magnetic letters: mop the floor, mow the lawn, feed the fishes, rock the baby, bathe the cat.  Bathe the cat?!  When the cat hears that, he springs into action, making a mess of the letters on the fridge and creating a new chore list.  Family members start vacuuming the lawn and mopping the baby.  But when the cat hears “mow the cat”, it’s time for another letter scramble.  Finally, things are so mixed up, the narrator just tells everyone what to do, and this time it’s the baby who gets bathed and the cat gets rocked.  48 pages; ages 3-7.

Pros:  I could hear the sound of preschool children laughing as I read this zany book with all of its mixed-up chores.  The illustrations add to the high energy with neon pink, yellow, and orange, and lovingly depict a biracial two-dad family. 

Cons:  When Grandma appears on the last page, she looks like she wouldn’t miss a beat coming into a house with an unvacuumed rug, an unmowed lawn, and an unbathed baby, so I don’t know what all the fuss was about
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March 6, 2022 at 07:06PM Janet Dawson