The Cat Who Wore a Pot on Her Head

by Jan Slepian and Ann Seidler
32 pages, 1987

This is just plain goofy fun. Bendemolena is a little kitten that is part of a big family - a noisy family! As the story begins Bendemolena finds a pot, plops it on her head and discovers that her loud home becomes a lot quieter when her ears are covered, so she decides to keep wearing it.

Problems start when her mother, Mrs. Cat, has to leave to help a sick friend, and takes the now hard of hearing Bendemolena with her to relay messages to the rest of the family back home. Mrs. Cat says, "Bendemolena, Bendemolena, run home and tell your brothers and sisters that it's time to put the fish on to bake."

But with the pot pulled tight over her ears Bendemolena isn't quite sure what her mother said: "Did she say put the smish on to fake or put the bish in the lake?" She concludes what her mother must have said was, "to put the soap in the cake" so that's what she tells her brothers and sisters to do.

My three-year-old loved every guess Bendemolena made, and all the silliness that happened each time she came home with another mixed-up message. I'm sure we'll be revisiting this giggle-inducing book regularly.

You can pick up a copy at Amazon.com by clicking here.