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‘Koozy’: Etisalat-winner for ‘Best Production,’ A Story of Loss & Cats & Love reviewed by ArabKidLitNow!
Nov
ArabKidLitNow recommends Koozy (كوزي), which was shortlisted for the 2018 Etisalat Prize for Arabic Children’s Literature in three categories (best book, best illustrations, best production) and won the “best production” prize.
This is a story of love and loss, friendship and honoring those who are gone, warmly and richly illustrated by Maja Kastelic. Since kids know better what they like, we enlisted two small people to give their impressions of the book.
The two reviewers, ages 10 and 7, asked for their names to be redacted:
R 10: It’s about a kid whose cat “disappears,” maybe dies–
R 7: Don’t say that.
R 10: –and so he’s really sad, and his cat doesn’t come back. And his mom tells him when cats go away, they go live in the stars at a certain time, and she tells him that his cat Koozy is up looking at him every night. And then there’s this girl that he sees, and her cat “went away” too, and he is friends with her and she likes cats, and he tells her about the star thing, and she tells him that if you write a letter, your cat will come and read it and know what you said.
R 10: I like how it feels real.
R 7: It was very emotional. I was crying.
R 10: I wasn’t crying. I was crying on the inside.
R 7: The drawing sort of reminded me of an actual child’s drawing, and that made me think that the child was writing this, and this was his life story.
R 10: I like how the art style is smooth. It feels like a movie.
R 10: I’d read it again.
R 7: I would re-read it because I love cats.
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