'Mr. Wuffles!' by David Wiesner

Wiesner, David. Mr. Wuffles!. Illustrated by David Wiesner. New York, Clarion Books, 2013. Print.

Image from:
www.davidweisner.com

I'm a little late to the party to heap praise on David Wiesner's unbelievably charming, funny, gorgeously illustrated, and fantastic picture book Mr. Wuffles!  If you're a fan of his earlier book Tuesday, with its whimsical humor, then you'll enjoy Mr. Wuffles!.

Weisner introduces us to the titular Mr. Wuffles before we even see the title page.  In a single page, Wiesner is able to give us the primary conflict of the story: Mr. Wuffles, like many cats, is extremely disinterested in cat toys.  His owner (or if you live with a cat, his servant/food and treat provider) tries to entice him with a brand-new toy, the price tag still attached.  Mr. Wuffles turns his nose up at the latest offering and walks away.  Over the title page and title page verso, we can see the new toy of the introduction page was just the latest in a long line of failed attempts to coax Mr. Wuffles to play with cat toys.  Weisner includes the price tags on all the previous toys, too, to emphasize that Mr. Wuffles disdains all cat toys.  The next page zooms in on a row of abandoned toys, but one does not look like the others.  What looks like a kitchen gadget turns out to be a tiny spaceship, with five tiny green aliens, thrilled and elated to have landed on another planet.

They are soon discovered by Mr. Wuffles, his eyes looming ominously in their window.  In the next frame, Wiesner shows the aliens tumbling in their ship, and we turn to page to find Mr. Wuffles intently studying the small ship.  He proceeds to happily play with the ship, and breaks their power source (or warp drive, for you Star Trek fans out there) in the process.  When he suddenly decides to have a nap, as cats are wont to do, the aliens make a break for it, and find refuge under a radiator, aided by a ladybug, who distracts Mr. Wuffles.

The aliens discover a world inside the walls of the house, complete with murals depicting the struggle of ants, ladybugs, and a few poor mice against Mr. Wuffles.  The aliens add their part of the story to the mural, and soon, the ants, aliens, and ladybug are sharing food and stories.  They hatch a plan to fix the spaceship's warp drive, and draw Mr. Wuffles' attention away so that one of the aliens can install the repaired warp drive.

Mr. Wuffles knows they're under the radiator.  He waits intently for them to emerge.

Will the aliens escape?  Does their warp drive work? Read Mr. Wuffles! and find out!

Wiesner's illustrations in watercolor and India ink are beautifully done.  Wiesner is able to give the aliens, who don't have much in the way of facial features, expressions that convey their feelings of the moment.  He creates a wonderful textures of Mr. Wuffles' fur, so that you want to touch the page to rub his fluffy tummy.  (Of course, Mr. Wuffles will probably bite you for your troubles.)  Wiesner absolutely nails a cat's behavior.  The apathy with toys they don't like, the leaping shock when you surprise them, the moment when they can't decide where to look when there's a commotion, the rapt focus when they do find something with which they'd like to play.  Wiesner is even able to give ants facial expressions, which makes him an extraordinary artist, in my opinion.

There are beautiful bits of detail in the drawings, such as the reflection of Mr. Wuffles' paws in the hardwood floor; the texture in the fibers of a piece of twine or a cheese cracker in the ants' treasure stash behind the walls; or the translucence of a child's marble.  It's no wonder that Wiesner earned a Caldecott honor for this book.

Another thing that makes this book so fantastic, is that it's light on dialog.  Well, dialog in English, anyway.  It's limited to Mr. Wuffle's owner and few short sentences.  The dialog between the ants, ladybug, and aliens is done in symbols or a series of what appears to be small brushstrokes on the paper.  The differences in their communication styles doesn't seem to hurt the ants, ladybug, or the aliens.  They understand each other perfectly.

If you're teaching narrative structure to kids whose first language is something other than English, this would be a great way to introduce it.  The lack of dialog is an asset in this book.  If you want to teach kids how to write dialog, this is also a great resource, because the actions are so clearly shown on the page, that it would be easy to give the assorted characters words.  Plus, the format of single-panel pages, alternated with multi-paneled pages that can easily be distributed to students as a group project.

I recommend this to anyone that lives with a cat, likes cats, loves sci-fi, loves picture books, loves seeing Jerry outsmart Tom -- oh gosh, I'll recommend this to everybody!  I'm certainly adding it to my picture book collection.

David Wiesner is also the author and illustrator of Tuesday (1992 Caldecott medal), Flotsam, Sector 7 (2000 Caldecott honor), and Freefall (1989 Caldecott honor).