Mommy's Fuzzy Wuzzy Book

When I was very young, my mother read to me constantly. The Monster at the End of This Book was a favorite, as well as a selection of books from her own childhood: Big Susan, Geraldine Belinda, The Cold Blooded Penguin, Sally Goes Shopping Alone. One of her old books, however, stands out as my first memory of a book as an object, rather than just as a story.



Miss Sniff, written by Jane Curry and published in 1945, tells the tale of a mischievous black kitten that Polly Pinks receives as an Easter present. The cat causes trouble by climbing the curtains, perching on the rooftop with another black cat and eventually falling directly into a bucket of yellow paint. But it so happens that the wrong cat is rescued from the paint and Miss Sniff has exchanged places with the similar-looking “Mr. Sniff.” In time the secret is revealed: Miss Sniff comes home with three tiny black kittens of her own.

One of a series of “Fuzzy Wuzzy” books, all the cat illustrations in Miss Sniff are velvet flocked. The texture of the illustrations is the book’s standout feature, and the reason that I remember it so vividly. Additionally, the illustrations are bright and cheerful and Curry’s text asks simple questions of the reader, such as “can you guess?” The girl in the story, with her rosy cheeks and blonde hair, always reminds me of my mother, who must have looked just like that in 1945, when she was four years old.



I still have my mother’s copy of this book. Its corners are rounded and the spine is held together, barely, with crispy masking tape. The cat illustrations on the cover and inside are still fuzzy, but the pages have yellowed. Everywhere the velvet touches, a ghostly impression has been left on the facing page. However, try as I might, I could never interest my own kids in this too sweet story. Perhaps I should have tried The Monster at the End of This Book.