Too Cool for School: Splat the Cat and the Cool School Trip by Rob Scotton

"IT'S PENGUIN DAY!" CRIED SPLAT AS HE WAKED FROM HIS DREAM.

SPLAT'S CLASS WAS GOING TO THE ZOO, AND SPLAT WAS TOO EXCITED TO SLEEP.

Splat is ready to hit that big yellow bus and head to the zoo, with dreams of seeing his favorite zoo animal, the penguin, on his brain!

Except... there's one problem. His sidekick Seymour the Mouse can't go along. Mrs. Wimpydimple has told Scat firmly that mice frighten the elephants and Seymour is verboten on that bus with Scat. But...

SEYMOUR HAD A PLAN.

Splat fans will remember than Seymour smuggled himself along on Splat's very first day at school by concealing himself carefully inside Splat's backpack, and when they spot him in a corner of the page, surreptitiously perusing a copy of Flying for Dummies, readers will guess that something is up with Seymour.

As the bus bounces along on its way to the zoo, Mrs. Wimpydimple quizzes the class on their favorite animals.  Lanky Plank takes the tallest, the giraffe.  Kitten naturally goes the the "cute" monkeys, and the burly Spike predictably picks the biggest and strongest, the elephant. Splat, of course, picks the penguin, because, well, they're black and white like he is, and they are unquestionably COOL!

But when they arrive at the zoo,  Mrs. Wimpydimple bypasses Penguin Point, no doubt pedigogically thinking that she'll save the penguins' chilly habitat to cool her students down from their stroll in the sunny outdoor exhibits. Everyone else spots their favorites--the giraffes nibbling from treetops and the monkeys acting silly, and the whole class is having a great time.  But then as they approach Spike's choice, the elephant exhibit, the cats spot something strange, something descending from the sky.

"IS IT A BIRD?  IS IT A PLANE?"
WELL, SORT OF. "IT'S ... SEYMOUR!"

Seymour soars down for a landing in his self-designed paper plane and crashes--

Right into the elephant enclosure.

"UH, OH!"

Big UH-OH! The frightened elephants stampede, and one big bull elephant rips down the fence and crashes dramatically into a nearby wall, making a huge hole for himself!

And as it that's not enough of an bummer for poor Splat, the wall that collapses is the wall to Penguin Point, requiring that that exhibit close right away so that the penguins can be rounded up in a safe place. Seymour is in disgrace, and Splat is devastated. It's a No Penguin Day!

But as usual, Seymour is the man with a plan. He shushes the huddled penguins as he whispers...

"FOLLOW ME!"

It's Penguin Day after all in Rob Scotton's newest, Splat and the Cool School Trip (Splat the Cat) (Harper, 2013).  Splat is totally the Top Cat at HarperCollins, and in this brand-new full-sized picture book author-illustrator Rob Scotton takes his frenetic feline first-grader and his sidekick Seymour Mouse into a fantastical school days sally, the zoo field trip. A bit of zoo lore and lots of far-fetched fun follow as the jittery Scat realizes his dream to see a real penguin up close and personal.

Pair this appropriately back-to-school title with Scotton's recent I-Can-Read cat tale, Splat the Cat with a Bang and a Clang (I Can Read Book 1) (Harper, 2013), perfect for emerging readers who may be encouraged to try their hand in a garage band!