Stuart's Cape

This was such a fun read for me. I loved the story because it blurred the line between imagination and reality. It never directly stated whether the situations in the story were were actually happening or was made up by Stuart's imagination; you had to decide for yourself. My favorite character was his crazy Aunt Bubbles who was so silly to think that the clouds were talking to her and that they were hungry for pound cake. She was a fun character because she played along with what Stewart was doing while his parents simply dismissed his ideas and even took his cape away to be disposed of.

I liked the way that Stuart thought and said things, for example on page 17 at the beginning of the chapter it says, "Stuart woke up on the ceiling. 'Good,' he said, remembering not to act surprised. 'I can fly." He talks so nonchalant and matter-of-fact that it was comical to me as I was reading. Another example is when One-Tooth, his cat, is snoring in the trash collector's car and Stuart realizes that cats don't make that sound and concludes that "of course! One-Tooth had traded places with the trash Man!" There were many more instances that I enjoyed throughout the book of Stuarts entertaining reasoning.

The illustrations in the book were so fun. I love on page 46 when Stuart imagines that he is an ant instead of himself. The illustration was really cute, it was an ant's body but with Stuart's head! Overall this book was really cute, had a funny story, and really captured the imagination of a third grade boy.

Pennypacker, Sara. Stuart's Cape. Illus. Martin Matje. New York, NY: Scholastic Inc., 2002.