Comic Adventures of Boots
by
Satoshi Kitamura
Illustrator: Satoshi Kitamura
Executed in lively comic book form, this series of everyday, yet unlikely, adventures features Boots, a highly original cat hero, though many of the cats from Kitamura's other books, such as Leonardo and Pablo, appear in cameo roles.
In 'Operation Fish Biscuit' Boots slyly reclaims his familiar sleeping post after competition from the neighbourhood cats; in 'Pleased to Meet You, Madam Quark', he takes swimming (reasonably successful) and flying (less so) lessons from a duck; and finally in 'Let's Play a Guessing Game', he calls on his newly-learned swimming skills to impress his friends.
With stylish and witty endpapers of Boots's feverish imagination at work, this is a delightful new addition to Kitamura's growing canon of cat literature.
Publisher: Andersen Press
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Satoshi Kitamura
Satoshi Kitamura was born in 1956 in Tokyo. He says that when he was young he read comics and admits that these have had a great influence on his style. He says he was also influenced by anything visual from a tin of sardines to the fine art of the East and the West. He was not trained as an artist, but at the age of 19 began to do commercial work. From 1976-1979 he worked as a commercial artist in Japan, working as an illustrator for adverts and magazines. He moved to London in 1979 and worked mainly designing greeting cards. He started illustrating for Andersen Press in 1981. At this time he had an exhibition of his work at the Neal Street Gallery in Covent Garden, which Klaus Flugge visited and showed him the text of Angry Arthur.
Angry Arthur, written by Hiawyn Oram, was published in 1982 to great acclaim, winning the Mother Goose Award in 1983 and the Japanese Picture Book Award.
In 1989, UFO diary was shortlisted for the Smarties Prize, an award he later went on to win for Me and My Cat, which was also shortlisted for the Kurt Mashler Award. In 2006, Satoshi’s collaboration with Colin McNaughton, Once Upon an Ordinary School Day, won The Japan Picture Book Award for best translated book.
His book, A Boy Wants a Dinosaur was shown as a children’s play at the Unicorn Theatre and his picture book Sheep in Wolves' Clothing was adapted into the television series Sheep! Which was shown on ITV.
Satoshi’s most recent book, Millie’s Marvellous Hat, was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Award in 2010.
http://www.satoshiland.com/
Satoshi Kitamura Photo: Anderson Press
Reading Age: 5+
Interest level: 3+
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