Blumpoe the Grumpoe Meets Arnold the Cat - Hardcover

"Horace P. Blumpoe was a grump. Everyone in his neighborhood thought so. They all called him Blumpoe the Grumpoe." So begins award-winning author Jean Davies Okimoto's charmingly quirky tale of a how a cat monkeys his way into the heart of an alleged curmudgeon. One November day, when Horace decides to head for Wabasha to pay his sister a visit, his car breaks down. Grumpily, he finds himself at the Anderson Hotel, a special inn with 19 resident cats, available to each guest to adopt for the length of his or her stay. Horace, of course, is not interested, and certainly not pleased; "I thought this was a hotel, not a kennel!" he shouts as he stomps off to his room. At 6:00, however, the only remaining unpicked cat (Arnold) refuses to let poor Horace go catless for a night. Arnold's delightful persistence, Horace's angry resistence, and Howie Schneider's wonderful, cartoonish illustrations will have readers laughing out loud and waiting for Horace's heart to melt along with their own. (Ages 4 to 8)

Grade 1-3 --Much like a younger version of James Steveson's Worst Person in the World, Horace P. Blumpoe elevates grumpiness to an art form, dashing off a letter to the manufacturer when there aren't enough chunks in his chunky peanut butter, complaining vociferously when his newspaper doesn't land in the exact center of his porch, facing the world with a ferocious scowl. When his car breaks down in a small Minnesota town, he takes a room at the Anderson House Hotel (a real place); along with a bachelor farmer from Lake Wobegon and other guests, he is invited to borrow one of the hotel's 19 cats for the night. Naturally he rejects the offer out of hand, but Arnold shyly appears on his bed anyway, casually ignoring his outrage; by morning he has put a smile on Blimpoe's face. Schneider's zany cartoon illustrations recall Stevenson's too, although both line and color are applied in a more controlled, detailed fashion; simple, clear scenes in a variety of sizes and shapes are bordered by small blocks of text and plenty of white space. Although less-practiced readers may be challenged by the vocabulary, this engaging, well-told story is worth their trouble. --John Peters, New York Public Library
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