My Cat Likes To Hide in Boxes product reviews

This was a must read book in our household for bedtime reading. I love that its written here in little old New Zealand and that the illustrator is Lynley Dodd (the author of the world famous Hairy Maclary series). It was published in 1974 so has stood the test of time as its over 40 year old! We own two copies of this book one for each bedroom.

Its a very simple read with lots of repetition. The story starts off by telling the reader "my cat likes to hide in boxes" and goes on to tell the story of all the other amazing cats from all over the world France, Spain, Norway, Greece, Brazil, Berlin and Japan. These are clever cats that can dance and sing and do other fantastic things but the author's cat all they like to do is hide in boxes.

The illustrations are simple and bright. And flicking the pages to see the mischief the cat who hides in boxes gets into is quite fun. I remember being read this as a child, my three loved it and even now can quote from it. And being such a favourite I love telling others about it, and have given it for gifts to friends so they can enjoy reading it to their children too.

We have a super crazy Ragdoll cat, Molly and she just loves to hide in boxes! Miss 3 and the cat are like the best of friends and so this is one of her favourite books of all time due to the fact that she can relate the cats in the story to her own cat and the things that she does. As an Early Childhood Teacher I have to say that this is also a very popular book in all of the centres in which I have worked amongst both the teachers and children, so it is requested rather frequently, to be honest I can pretty much retell the story without even looking at the book!

This is always such a fun book to read and I absolutely love the illustrations of the cats who are each drawn to represent a different countries dress sense. The pictures are great for sparking a child's imagination and often bring up a whole lot of discussions about the funny things that some of the cats do for example, flying in aeroplanes, in turn the children love to share their own stories about what their cats like to do and the crazy things they get up to, often resulting in a lot of laughter in the room!

The book is written in rhyme and is very repetitive with the children not taking long at all to memorise parts of the story and joining in with the reading of it, especially the part that goes "but my cat likes to hide in boxes". With many Early Childhood Centre's being very multi-cultural these days with children from varying nationalities, this book is a very valuable tool for teaching children about different countries, when reading this book with older children we often end up looking at a map afterwards and locating all of the different countries from the story, while reading it to the younger toddlers and babies I often find that they will role play hiding in boxes and on shelves after hearing the story, which is rather cute.

This book is a must for all teachers, and also a great book for home, especially if you have a cat loving child.

I first came across this book as a student teacher about seven years ago, and decided that I had to have my own copy. Since then I have read this book to many children and every time the response is the same- they seem to love it. The rhyme is perfect and the illustrations are gorgeous! Children seem to love the thought of a cat wearing a scarf and flying a plane and the illustrations just bring the word and the imagination all together.
This book has a repetitive structure, which is a great tool for improving and extending a child's memory. This helps them to remember the words and repeat them back, which is an early skill needed for learning to read. It is also quite good for teaching children about different countries in the world and teaching them how rhyme works.
It is a cute story that shows us we are all unique, and even though some prefer the fancy life, it is just fine to enjoy the simple things in life. This is an easy to read book which would make a great bedtime story, yet would still suit being read to a group of children as I have done often. The repetitive nature also makes it a good, fun book for a child who is new to reading. I highly recommend this book for all children, it is one of my favourites and suits any occasion!

We have the two craziest cats in the world and if they see a box or a cupboard open they have to go sleep in it. In front of the fire we have two boxes set up so they can both have there own one. If anything arrives in a box both of them hang around like a bad smell.

This book is classic. Cats all over the world do interesting things like the cat from Spain flies an aeroplane and the cat from France can sing and dance but the cat from New Zealand likes to hide in boxes. It so true and to the point. Okey probably not the cat flying or singing and dancing but the fact New Zealand cats love boxes.

The pictures are pretty basic and make the cats look like they are triangles, but they tell you what the various cats around the world are doing, and then the different boxes the Zealand cat is playing with. I especially love the last picture of toys thrown all over the floor and the cat rolled up in a ball asleep, reminds me of our house.

The book is beautifully written and repeats what all of the cats are doing so children can read along with you or like my five year old I name the country and she can say word for word what the cat is doing. My two year old always says 'but my cat likes to hide in boxes'. Its a very funny book that the whole family will enjoy.