Yes, this is another book in the Ruffles series. (I previously discussed Ruffles and the Bouncy Ball and Ruffles and the Red, Red Coat. ) I keep stumbling across these books at my local public library, and I keep enjoying them, so…today I’m talking about David Melling’s 2021 picture book Ruffles and the Teeny, Tiny Kittens.
Like the other books in this series, this book focuses on a dog named Ruffles, his adventures, and his reversals. Like the other book, the title emphasizes Ruffles and then links him to other things: “Ruffles and…” “Ruffles and…” This creates a clear and easy continuity which children will appreciate. So does the book design and story presentation. As in earlier books, there’s often a large image introducing an idea on the left page, then nine smaller images on the right page, carefully arranged in a 3 by 3 square, each of which illustrates the larger idea. In this case, for example, the book starts with “This is Ruffles,” an image of Ruffles, and “Ruffles loves…” on the first left hand page. On the accompanying right, we get nine images of things Ruffles loves.
Page 3 introduces the inciting incident, the change in Ruffles’ life: the five teeny, tiny kittens. We learn he does not love them, and give nine explicit reasons why, ending with the most important: they poop on the floor.
Introducing the kittens is a nice touch. Earlier books had shown Ruffles alone or with dogs; this lets Melling show he sees cat body language as clearly as dog, and the contrast between the larger and largely white Ruffles and the much smaller and largely orange kittens makes for a lot of visual humor: we often see only part of one kitten–or just the butts and tails of all of them.
The core story here is how Ruffles comes to accept the kittens and become friends with them, and I have to say, the key plot point here comes too easily: I just don’t think the kittens are heavy enough to tear his beloved blue blanket (or that Ruffles would forgive them that quickly).
But that sticking point aside, this is another well-made and well-designed book: precise, quiet, and charming.
