Mimi’s Dada Catifesto by Shelley Jackson

Jackson, Shelley.  Mimi’s Dada Catifesto, 48 pages. Clarion Books, 2010.  $17.00.  Language –G; Sexual Content –G; Violence –G;   Mimi is a cat, who deems herself an artist. She is on a quest to find a human who shares her creative sensibilities.  When she sees a performance by a strange man with a fish on his head, she realizes she has found someone who understands her.  At first, the man doesn’t understand the cat, but eventually man and cat join together in what is known as, “Dadaist harmony”. Perhaps we aren’t “artsy people”, and therefore didn’t get the point of the book, but my kids didn’t even want to finish reading it. Trying to figure out what the book was really about, I read this review online:  “A great introduction to the Dada art movement, //Catifesto// is an explanations of how art can be anything and everything, as long as you //say// it's art. A short essay at the end of the book, "What Is Dada?" provides some historical context. The book is an excellent way to introduce children to the possibility of art in the everyday.” We found the book confusing and difficult to follow.  We simply weren’t interested in reading it.  EL- NO.  Reviewer: SL